Class Jkj2SL_ 
Book v.") <£f~ 



REMARKS 



THE POLICY AND PRACTICE 



UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN 



THEIR TREATMENT OF. THE INDIANS. 



FROM THE 

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, NO. LV, 
For April, 1827. 



BOSTON. 

FREDERICK T. GRAY, 74 WASHINGTON STREET. 



1827. 



4 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



tribes in the French. We speak in general terms, and without 
adverting to the inconsiderable exceptions, occasioned by the 
local residence of some small tribes, and by other partial caus- 
es. The great contending parties availed themselves of the 
passions and wants of the Indians to harass their enemies, and 
employed them without scruple, wherever their services were 
useful ; and each was more successful in arraigning the con- 
duct of its rival, than in defending its own, for this atrocious 
practice, equally repugnant to their duty, as civilized and as 
christian nations. 

We feel no disposition to look back upon the revolting scenes 
of these times gone by. The Indians were employed with a 
full knowledge of their habits and propensities ; and many a 
traditionary story, as well as the more permanent memorials of 
history, has brought down to us, even through successive gene- 
rations, afflicting details of these enormities. The cupidity of 
the savages was stimulated by pecuniary rewards, and human 
scalps, as proofs of death, were bought and sold in christian 
markets.* 

As the fortunes of the French waned, and the superiority of 
the British became more and more manifest, the zeal and 
exertions of the Indians in the interest of the latter gradually 
relaxed, and they became spectators rather than actors, in the 
great drama, which was rapidly approaching its termination. 
The Iroquois appear to have become sensible, that in exalting 
one power and annihilating the other, their policy had been 
directed by very limited views, and that it would convert an 
ally into a master. Even as early as the reign of Queen Anne, 
their deputies, in an address to that sovereign, portrayed, with 

* ' In the year 1754, the war assumed a very serious aspect, and the 
French government, in order to stimulate the savages to cruel and 
merciless depredations, provided a large premium for the scalp of every 
Anglo-American, which the Indians should produce. This open cru- 
elty was not retaliated by the English government upon the French 
inhabitants of Canada, but a bounty was offered of £100 on the scalp 
of the Indians.' — Sullivan's History of the Penobscot Indians, Vol. IX. 
of the Mass. Hist. Col. 

'The Indian strings the scalps he has procured, to be produced as 
testimonies of his prowess, and receives a premium for each scalp from 
the nation under whose banners he has enlisted.' Wynne's History of 
the British Empire in JUmerica. Vol. II. p. 57. 

6 In the war between France and England, and their colonies, their 
Indian allies were entitled to a premium for every scalp of an enemy.' 
Buchanan's Sketches ; Introduction, p. 19. 



Indians before the Revolution. 



5 



great truth and feeling, the calamitous issue, which awaited 
them. ' We doubt not,' said they, ' but our great Queen has 
been acquainted with our long and tedious war, in conjunction 
with her children, against her enemies the French, and that 
we have been as a strong wall for their security, even to the 
loss of our best men.'* Since then, so often has this strong 
wall been interposed between the British and their enemies, 
that it is now utterly demolished, and its fragments scattered 
to the four winds of heaven. ' In 1750, the governor of New 
York was directed to confer with the chiefs of the Six Nations, 
and to endeavor, by means of valuable presents, and promises 
of more, to wean them from the French interest, into which 
they had been artfully allured by that intriguing people, and 
attach them to their former friends and allies, the British* 'f 

It is evident from many circumstances, that the Indians justly 
appreciated the motives of the christian belligerents. Pow- 
nall says, 6 They repeatedly told us, that both we and the 
French sought to amuse them with fine tales of our several 
upright intentions. That both parties told them, that they 
made war for the protection of the Indian rights, but that our 
actions fully discovered, that the war was only a contest, who 
should become masters of the country, which was the property, 
neither of one, nor the other.' (Vol. I. p. 244.) And the In- 
dians told Sir William Johnson, 1 that they believed soon they 
should not be able to hunt a bear into a hole in a tree, but 
some Englishman would claim a right to the property of it, as 
being his tree.' (Ib. p. 188.) A change in the counsels of the 
Iroquois was the natural result of this state of feeling, and de- 
cided indications of this change are found in the vacillating 
conduct of their chiefs upon the Ohio, towards Washington, 
when engaged in his adventurous military embassy to the 
French posts in that quarter. This state of things became 
every day less and less equivocal, and in 1774, it led to open 
hostilities. 

But at an earlier period, the unsettled state of their Indian 
relations must have satisfied the British government, that in 
succeeding to the power of the French, they had not succeeded 
to their influence and interest with the Indians. Pontiac's war, 
and the contemporaneous attack upon most of the posts on 
the northwestern frontier, and the capture of many of them ; 



* Wynne, Vol. I. p. 178. f Ib. Vol. II. p. 24. 



6 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



the expeditions of Broadstreet and Bouquet in that quarter, 
and of Grant in the south, together with many other military 
expeditions of subordinate interest, mark the excited feelings, 
which prevailed among the Indians, from Michilimackinac to 
Florida. There is a peculiar elasticity in the French charac- 
ter, and we stop not to inquire whether it be feeling or philos- 
ophy, by which a Frenchman accommodates himself to any 
situation, in which he may be placed. Upon the Seine and 
upon the St Lawrence, if not equally pleased, he is equally 
pleasant ; and during two centuries, in the depths of the Amer- 
ican forests, he has associated with their rude tenants, and, as 
he could not elevate them to his own standard, he has descend- 
ed to theirs.* A mutual and permanent attachment has been 
the result of this intercourse, and to this day, the period of 
French domination is the era of all that is happy in Indian 
reminiscence. 

When we look back upon the long interval of Indian inter- 
course, which elapsed between the first settlement on the 
shores of the Atlantic, and the final consolidation of the British 
power, nothing but a dreary waste meets the eye. Not a ver- 
dant spot cheers the sight, nor a single Oasis in this worse than 
Libyan desert. Remote and feeble colonies had become im- 
portant and flourishing provinces, and the aboriginal inhabitants 
had disappeared, or receded, before the mighty tide of popu- 
lation, which already, from the summit of the Allegany, was 
spreading with exterminating force over the forests and prairies 
of the west. We hold no fellowship with those, to whom the 
sound of the Indian's rifle is more attractive than that of the 
woodman's axe, nor are we believers in that system of legal 
metaphysics, which would give to a few naked and wandering 
savages, a perpetual title to an immense continent. But it will 
not at this day be disputed, that when, in the progress of im- 
provement, the hunting grounds of the Indians give place to 
cultivated fields, it is our duty to render them a lull equivalent. 
The British government is responsible for the whole course of 
measures, in relation to the Indians in this country, until the 
war of the Revolution. Their orders were executed by their 

*In 1685, the Marquis de Denonville wrote to the French govern- 
ment ; ' It has long been believed that it is necessary to mingle with 
the Indians in order to Frenchify them (Franciser). But this is a mis- 
take. Those with whom we mingle do not become French, but our 
people become Indians.' 



Indians before the Revolution. 



own officers, and during a part of this period, a superintendent 
of Indian affairs for the northern, and another for the southern 
department, were appointed by the crown. 

Not a vestige remains of any permanent advantage derived 
by the Indians from the cessions or sacrifices they made. 
Their actual relations with the British government may be 
emphatically stated in few words. They were useful, and 
were used, in war to fight, and in peace to trade. Queen 
Anne, indeed, presented sacramental vessels to the Mohawks, 
and other furniture for a chapel, and this is about the extent, 
as far as we have been able to discover, of the direct interfer- 
ence of the British government in any plan to improve the 
moral condition of the Indians. Pious and benevolent men 
were engaged then, as they are now, in this interesting task, 
and the names of Eliot and Brainerd have come down to us 
with apostolic sanctity. The Society for Propagating the Gos- 
pel attempted something ; but they discovered, as they said, 
4 that the Indians obstinately rejected their care,' and abandon- 
ed the effort, without suspecting, that the fault was in the plan 
of the teacher, and not in the docility of the scholar. Gener- 
ally, however, great indifference prevailed, and it is said in the 
Biographia Britannica, that Lord Granville reproved the con- 
verting of the Indians, ' because a knowledge of Christianity 
will introduce them to a knowledge of the arts, and 'such a 
consummation will make them dangerous to our plantations.' 
Of a similar character is the policy, stated by Hutchinson to 
have been pursued, that of keeping up so much contention 
among the Indians, as to prevent a combination, and to make 
an appeal to us as umpires necessary from time to time.* 

In the few Indian treaties which have escaped from the 
official bureaus, a piece or two of 4 strouding,' some 4 dufflls,' 
4 kettles,' 4 flints,' &c. constitute the whole value paid for im- 
portant cessions. These presents were too inconsiderable for 
general distribution, and they disappeared almost as speedily 
as the council which produced them. A permanent arrange- 
ment, by which an annual consideration should always be given, 
and a supply thus provided for never ending wants, was neither 
adopted nor proposed. This plan of permanent annuities, 
which constitutes an era in the relations existing between the 
white and the red man upon the continent, was introduced 



* Hist, of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I. p. 252. 



8 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



under the American government, and was first extensively 
embodied in Wayne's treaty of 1795 ; a treaty to which no 
parallel can be found in history. The Indians had waged a 
bloody and causeless war against our settlements for many 
years. They had been finally overthrown in a signal battle, 
and their confidence in themselves and their cause utterly de- 
stroyed. They were invited to a general council at Greenville, 
where the same terms were granted, which had been offered 
to them long before. Many important advantages were secur- 
ed to them, and perpetual annuities were guarantied to each 
tribe. 

If any restraints were imposed by the British authorities, 
before our revolution, upon the Indian traders, either in re- 
lation to their general conduct, or the price of their goods, 
such restraints have escaped our investigation. We speak ad- 
visedly when we say, that none such now exist. Nor is there 
any prohibition against the introduction of spirituous liquors into 
any part of their Indian country. We may close this branch 
of the subject in few words. There was no attempt to provide 
a permanent residence for me Indians. There were no 
schools, and no efforts to introduce agriculture, or the me- 
chanic arts. There were no annuities, no regulations to direct 
the conduct of the traders, and no law to prevent the sale of 
ardent spirits. A century and a half had passed away since 
the first settlement of the country. The rulers who governed 
it, heedless of the condition and sufferings of its aboriginal in- 
habitants, abandoned them to that current of events, which is 
yet hurrying them onward to their doom. The records of 
history cannot furnish a more cold blooded, heartless docu- 
ment, than the official report of Sir Jeffery Amherst, the British 
commander in chief, dated Albany, 13 August, 1763, and 
communicating the result of Colonel Grant's expedition against 
the Cherokees. He states, that ' Colonel Grant had burnt fif- 
teen towns, and all the plantations of the country ; destroyed 
fourteen hundred acres of corn ; and driven about five thous- 
and men, women, and children into the woods and mountains, 
where, having nothing to subsist upon, they must either starve 
or sue for peace.' 

But that great revolution had now approached, which has 
already produced, and is yet destined to produce, Important 
changes in the social and political systems of the world. The 
American government, at the commencement of its operations, 



Indians before the Revolution. 



used every effort to prevent the Indians from taking part in the 
contest, and the desperate struggle in which the early patriots 
were engaged, still left them time to devise plans for the moral 
and physical melioration of their unhappy neighbors. On the 
30th of June, 1775, Congress resolved, 

' That the committee for Indian affairs do prepare proper talks 
to the several tribes of Indians, for engaging the continuance of 
their friendship to us, and neutrality in our present unhappy dis- 
pute with Great Britain.' 

And on the 17th of the following month it was again resolv- 
ed, in the same spirit of conciliation and humanity, 

{ That it should be recommended to the commissioners of the 
northern department to employ Mr Kirkland among the Indians 
of the Six Nations, in order to secure their friendship, and to 
continue them in a state of neutrality, with respect to the present 
controversy between Great Britain and these colonies.' 

But in January and February of the next year, two resolu- 
tions were passed, which provided more full security for the 
protection and improvement of the Indians, than all the meas- 
ures of the preceding government. 

' Resolved — That all traders shall dispose of their goods, at 
such stated prices, as shall be fixed and ascertained by the com- 
missioners, or a majority of such as can conveniently assemble 
for that purpose, in each respective department, and shall allow 
the Indians a reasonable price for their furs and skins, and take 
no unjust advantage of their distress and intemperance ; and to this 
end, they shall respectively, upon receiving their licenses, enter into 
bond to the commissioners, for the use of the United Colonies, in 
such penalty as the acting commissioner or commissioners shall 
think proper, conditioned for the performance of the terms and 
regulations above prescribed.' 

' Resolved — That a friendly commerce between the people of 
the United Colonies and the Indians, and the propagation of the 
gospel, and the cultivation of the civil arts among the latter, may 
produce many and inestimable advantages to both, and that the 
commissioners for Indian affairs be desired to consider of proper 
places in their respective departments, for the residence of minis- 
ters and schoolmasters, and report the same to Congress.' 

When the infancy of the government, and the object and 
spirit of these resolutions are maturely considered, they will be 
found honorable to the body wiiich adopted them. With what 
little effect attempts were thus made to counteract the efforts 
of the British authorities, and to restrain the habitual disposi- 



10 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

tion of the Indians for war and plunder, was soon demonstra t~ 
ed by events, and impartial history has recorded. 

The employment of the savages by the French and Brit- 
ish, and of bloodhounds by the Spaniards, to destroy their 
enemies, are among the most atrocious acts, which Christen- 
dom has been called to witness. We shall not here tax our own 
recollection, nor the feelings of our readers, by any recital of 
the enormities we have seen, or of which we have heard or 
read. The imagination can furnish no aid towards a just con- 
ception of these scenes. There is nothing more appalling 
than the reality. The Indians are impelled to war by passions, 
which acknowledge no control, and death and desolation are 
the objects of their military expeditions. From infancy, they 
are taught to inflict cruelties upon their enemies, and to 
bear with stern fortitude, whatever may befall them. They 
are equally prepared to endure and to torture, and in either 
situation without the slightest symptom of human frailty or 
feeling. They have not only no principles of religion or 
morality to repress their passions, but they are urged forward 
in their career of blood by all around them ; by the examples 
of their fathers, and by the deeds of their companions. He 
is the most renowned warrior, whose tomahawk flies swiftest 
and sinks deepest. 

There is a horrible institution among some of the tribes, 
which furnishes a powerful illustration of this never tiring love 
of vengeance. It is called, the Man-eating Society, and it is 
the duty of its associates to devour such prisoners, as are pre- 
served and delivered to them for that purpose. The members 
of this society belong to a particular family, and the dreadful 
inheritance descends to all the children, male and female. Its 
duties cannot be dispensed with, and the sanctions of religion 
are added to the obligations of immemorial usage. The feast 
is considered a solemn ceremony, at which the whole tribe is 
collected, as actors or spectators. The miserable victim is 
fastened to a stake, and burned at a slow fire, with all the re- 
finements of cruelty, which savage ingenuity can invent. There 
is a traditionary ritual, which regulates, with revolting precision, 
the whole course of procedure at these ceremonies. The in- 
stitution has latterly declined, but we know those, who have 
seen and related to us the incidents, which occurred on these 
occasions^ when white men were sacrificed and consumed. 
The chief pf the family, and principal member of the society 



War Dance. 



among the Miamies, whose name was White Skin, we have 
seen, and with feelings of loathing excited by a narrative of 
his atrocities, amid the scenes where they occurred. 

There are but two serious occupations, connected with the. 
ordinary business of life, to which an Indian willingly devotes 
himself. These are war and hunting. Labor is performed 
exclusively by the women, and this distribution of duties is a 
marked characteristic of all barbarous nations. The pas- 
sion for war is fostered and encouraged by institutions, which 
are admirably adapted to make the warrior brave and enter- 
prising. Nothing in the systems of the ancient republics was 
better devised to stimulate the ardor of their citizens. And 
when assembled Greece proclaimed the victor at the Olympic 
games, and crowned him with the olive wreath, she furnished 
no more powerful motive for exertion and distinction, than is 
provided in the institutions of our aborigines. It is the same love 
of distinction, which impels the warrior to tear from the head of 
the writhing and reeking victim, the bloody trophy of savage 
victory, and at the next war dance in his distant village, to 
strike the post, and to recount the atrocities, which, by the aid 
of the Sag-a-nosh,* he has been enabled to commit upon the 
Tshe-mo-ke-maun.f 

An Indian war dance is an important incident in the passing 
events of a village. The whole population is assembled, and 
a feast provided for all. The warriors are painted and prepar- 
ed as for battle. A post is firmly planted in the ground, and 
the singers, the drummers, and the other instrumental musi- 
cians, are seated within the circle, formed by the dancers and 
the spectators. The music and the dance begin. The war- 
riors exert themselves with great energy. Every muscle is in 
action, and there is the- most perfect concord between the 
music and their movements. They brandish their weapons, 
and with such apparent fury that fatal accidents seem unavoid- 
able. Presently a warrior leaves the circle, and with his 
tomahawk or cassetete strikes the post. The music and danc- 
ing cease, and profound silence ensues. He then recounts, 
with a loud voice, his military achievements. He describes 
the battles he has fought, the prisoners he has captured, the 
scalps he has taken. He points to his wounds, and produces 



tlrgknSeTAmerican, ^ inthe Algonquin dialect. 



12 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

his trophies. He accompanies his narrative with the actual 
representation of his exploits, and the mimic engagement, the 
advance and the retreat, are exhibited to his nation as they 
really occurred. There is no exaggeration, and no misrepre- 
sentation. It would be infamous for a warrior to boast of 
deeds he never performed. If the attempt were made, some 
one would approach, and throw dirt in his face, saying, 1 1 do 
this to cover your shame, for the first time you see an enemy 
you will tremble.' But such an indignity is rarely necessary, 
and as the war parties generally contain many individuals, the 
character and conduct of every warrior are well known. 
Shouts of applause accompany the narration, proportioned in 
duration and intensity to the interest it excites. His station in 
the circle is then resumed by the actor, and the dance pro- 
ceeds till it is interrupted in a similar manner. 

In the poem of Ontwa, a scene like this is so well de- 
scribed, that we cannot resist the temptation to transfer it 
to our pages. Of all who have attempted to embody in song 
the ' living manners ' of the Indians, the anonymous author of 
that poem has been most successful. His characters, and 
traditions, and descriptions, have the spirit and bearing of 
life, and the whole work is not less true to nature than to 
poetry. 

1 A hundred warriors now advance, 
All dressed and painted for the dance, 
And sounding club and hollow skin 
A slow and measured time begin ; 
With rigid limb and sliding foot 
And murmurs low, the time to suit, 
Forever varying with the sound 
The circling band moves round and round. 
Now slowly rise the swelling notes, 
When every crest more lively floats, 
Now toss'd on high with gesture proud, 
Then lowly 'mid the circle bow'd ; 
While clanging arms grow louder still, 
And every voice becomes more shrill, 
Till fierce and strong the clamor grows, 
And the wild war whoop bids it close. 
Then starts Shuuktonga forth, whose band 
Came far from Huron's storm beat strand., 
And thus recounts his battle feats, 
While his dark club the measure beats/ 



Conduct of Indians in War. 



But this scenic representation must not 'be confounded with 
the ordinary Indian war songs, which are sung by the warriors, 
when leaving their villages upon a hostile excursion, and when- 
ever, during the march, the excitement of music is necessary 
to stimulate the party to encounter the fatigues or dangers of 
the expedition. The chief warrior commences the song, and 
after its termination, he is greeted with the well known ex- 
clamation, yeh, yeh, from all the warriors. 

A scalp is the most honorable trophy a warrior can exhibit. 
Authors have already remarked, that Herodotus describes this 
custom as existing among the Scythians, and Polybius, among 
the Carthaginians. It is commonly taken from the crown of 
the head, but Long, an English traveller in the Indian country, 
during our revolutionary war, tells us, that " some of the In- 
dians in time of war, when scalps are well paid for, divide one 
into five or six parts, and carry them to the nearest posts, in 
hopes of receiving a reward proportioned to the number.' p. 23. 
Some strong moral or religious barrier would be necessary to 
restrain the Indians from the perpetration of cruelties, to which 
they are impelled by the powerful motives, which we have 
described. But no such barrier exists ; and the experience 
of two centuries has demonstrated, that in all their battles 
with the whites, when resistance ceases the slaughter begins. 
Man in his strength, woman in her weakness, and infancy in its 
innocence, are alike devoted to destruction, and frequently 
with circumstances of atrocity, to which no parallel can be 
found in other ages or nations. 

No terms of reprehension can be too strong for the employ- 
ment of such a force. The nation, which authorizes it, should 
be arraigned at the tribunal of Christendom. It is a force 
which will not be controlled. Human power cannot stay the 
tide of slaughter. And ' allies?* as the Indians may be, it is 
an alliance, to which posterity will look back with grief and 
indignation, and which will tarnish the brightest jewel in the 
crown of the Defender of the Faith. It needs no casuistry to 
prove, that the government, which employs a force, of whose 

* The British to the American Commissioners, Ghent, September 4, 
1814. ' The British Plenipotentiaries have yet to learn, that it is^ con- 
trary to the acknowledged principles of public law, to include allies in 
a negotiation for peace, or that it is contrary to the practice of all civ- 
ilized nations, to propose that a provision should be made for their fu- 
ture security.' 



14 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

direct tendency they are aware, is responsible for the conduct 
of that force. Mr Madison has justly said, that 4 for these 
enormities they are equally responsible, whether with the power 
to prevent them, they want the will, or with the knowledge of 
a want of power, they still avail themselves of such instru- 
ments.'* 

That the savages could not be restrained, was well known to 
the British authorities, and has been repeatedly avowed by 
their officers, and even with menaces of the consequences. 
Such was the avowal in Burgoyne's proclamation, and such 
was the menace in General Brock's demand of surrender to 
General Hull, wherein he says, 4 You must be aware, that the 
numerous body of Indians, who have attached themselves to 
my troops, will be beyond my control the moment the contest 
commences.' This example was also followed by Proctor in 
his summons to General Harrison, at Fort Meigs ; and at 
the catastrophe of the River Raisin, General Winchester 
states in his official report, that he 4 was informed by the Brit- 
ish commanding officer, that unless a speedy surrender took 
place, he would not be responsible for the conduct of the sav- 
ages.' And that these were not empty threats, we have many 
heart rending proofs, and none more decisive than the British 
official account of the battle at the River Raisin, published at 
Quebec, February 8, 1813. It is there coolly stated, 4 that at 
daybreak on the 22d January, Colonel Proctor, by a spirited 
and vigorous attack, completely defeated General Winchester's 
division, with the loss of between 400 and 500 slain ; for all, 
who attempted to save themselves by flight, were cut off by the 
Indians ! ' The incidents connected with the employment of 
the savages, during the progress of our revolutionary war, are 
embodied in the history of our country. The gasconading 
proclamation of Burgoyne, which gave the assurance of official 
sanction to the measure, and in which he says, 4 1 have but to 
give stretch to the Indian forces under my direction (and they 
amount to thousands), to overtake the hardened enemies of 
Great Britain and America ; ' the numerous hordes, which ac- 
companied his army, and the melancholy catastrophe, which, 
in the murder of Miss M 4 Crae, gave more horrible celebrity to 
their employment ; the devastation of the country upon the 
Mohawk ; the massacre of Wyoming ; the numerous war par- 



* Message to Congress, December 7, 1813. 



Conduct of Indians in War. 



15 



ties, which were detached from time to time, to lay waste the 
frontiers of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky ; these are 
but some of the more prominent events in that long and bitter 
contest. 

But it was at Detroit, that this influence was most success- 
fully exerted. That place was then the central point of Indian 
negotiation and intrigues, and the savages were there collected 
from every part of the surrounding country, and fed and 
clothed at the expense of the British government. Many of 
the principal Canadians received commissions from the provin- 
cial authorities, constituting them officers of the savages, in 
order that their influence might be exerted in raising war -par- 
ties, whenever circumstances rendered it expedient to attack 
and lay waste our exposed frontier. We annex a copy of one 
of these commissions, as well to authenticate the statements 
we have made, as to hold up to public abhorrence this nefa- 
rious practice. As it is copied verbatim, we disclaim all 
responsibility for the accuracy of the language in which it is 
written.* 

When it was determined to detach a war party upon duty, 
these officers were directed to raise the necessary number of 
warriors ; and in doing so, they depended on the effect of their 
personal influence, and on presents, and promises, and war 
dances, and all the moral and physical excitements, to which 
the Indians most readily yielded. 

* ' Par Henry Hamilton, Ecuyer, Lieutenant Gouverneur and Surin- 
tendant du Detroit & Dependences, &c. &c &c. 

' A Pierre Guoin, Ecuyer, 

' La confiance particuliere que J'ai de votre integrite & attachement 
a Sa Majeste Le Roy George, et en vertu du Pouvoir & Authorite qui 
ma ete donne par Messire Guy Carleton, Chevalier des ordres du Bain, 
Capitaine General et Gouverneur en Chef de la Province de Quebec 
& Territoires en dependans en Amerique, Vice Admiral d'icelle, 
&c. &c. &c. General et Commandant et Chef les armees de sa Majeste 
dans la ditte Province et frontiere d'icelle, &c. &c. &c. Je vous 
nomme et etablis Lieutenant des Sauvages pour le District du Detroit 
pour en faire les fonctions en la ditte qualite, vous obeires et suivres 
les ordres & instructions que vous recevres de son Excellence le Com- 
mandant en Chef du Surintendant des Sauvages, de son Depute ou de 
tous autres officiers Superieurs en menant & conduisant les partie des 
fidelles nations sauvages, alies a sa Majeste qui seront sous vos ordres* 

' Donne au Detroit sous ma main et sceau Le 24 Juin, 1777. 

Henry Hamilton. 

* Par ordre du Lieut. Gouverneur, 

P. Dejean.' 

3 



16 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare, 



When the party returned, they were formally introduced to 
the commanding officer. The scalps were thrown down be- 
fore him in the council house, and the principal warrior 
addressed him in terms like these, 4 Father, we have done as 
you directed us ; we have struck your enemies.' They were 
then paid and dismissed, and the scalps were deposited in the 
cellar of the council house. We have been told by more 
than one respectable eye witness, that when this charnel house 
was cleansed, it was a spectacle, upon which the inhabitants 
gazed with horror. 

The Indians, however, were not always ready to undertake 
these distant and dangerous expeditions. In 1779, Governor 
Hamilton prepared a feast, and invited all the warriors to a 
dance. He was desirous of engaging them in an attack upon 
some of our settlements. The principal chief was a Kickapoo, 
who, declining to join in the dance, was reproached by Hamil- 
ton in the metaphorical language so common among the In- 
dians. 4 Your body is very heavy. You do not dance. You 
will not go against my rebellious children.' The chief replied, 
4 True, it is heavy. But so is yours. Take one end of this 
tomahawk, and I will take the other, and we will go together. 
But no ; you will not go yourself. Is it not a shame, that you 
send us out like dogs, to fight the Americans, while you remain 
at your own fire ? If I have rebellious children, I throw cold 
water on them.* If yours are so, do as I do. But neither 
my hands, nor those of my tribe, were made to be washed in 
the blood of the white man.' This spirited remonstrance was 
received with great applause by the Indians, and the expedi- 
tion was abandoned. 

We are indebted for the following relation to a respectable 
gentleman of Detroit, James May, Esq. and as it elucidates im- 
portant traits in the Indian character, and discloses facts not 
generally known, we shall give it in his own words. 

4 During the American revolutionary war, when the Indian 
war parties approached Detroit, they always gave the war and 
death whoops, so that the inhabitants, who were acquainted with 
their customs, knew the number of scalps they had brought, and 
of prisoners they had taken, some time before they made their 
appearance. Soon after I arrived in Detroit, the great war par- 
ty, which had captured Ruddle's station in Kentucky, returned 

* This is the usual mode of punishing children among the Indians. 
More severe chastisement is seldom resorted to. 



Indians before the Revolution. 



17 



from that expedition. Hearing the usual signals of success, 
I walked out of the town, and soon met the party. The 
squaws and young Indians had ranged themselves on the side 
of the road, with sticks and clubs, and were whipping the pris- 
oners with great severity. Among these were two young girls, 
thirteen or fourteen years old, who escaped from the party, 
and ran for protection to me and to a naval officer, who was 
with me. With much trouble and some danger, and after 
knocking down two of the Indians, we succeeded in rescuing 
the girls, and fled with them to the Council House. Here 
they were safe, because this was the goal, where the right of 
the Indians to beat them ceased. 

4 Next morning, I received a message by an orderly ser- 
geant, to wait upon Colonel De Peyster, the commanding officer. 
I found the naval officer, who was with me the preceding day, 
already there. The Colonel stated, that a serious complaint 
had been preferred against us by M'Kee, the Indian Agent, 
for interfering with the Indians, and rescuing two of their pris- 
oners. He said the Indians had a right to their own mode of 
warfare, and that no one should interrupt them ; and after con- 
tinuing this reproof for some time, he told me, if I ever took 
such a liberty again, he would send me to Montreal or Quebec. 
The naval officer was still more severely reprimanded and 
threatened to have his uniform stripped from his back, and to 
be dismissed from his Majesty's service, if such an incident 
again occurred ! And although I stated to Colonel De Pey- 
ster, that we saved the lives of the girls at the peril of our 
own, he abated nothing of his threats or harshness.' 

And in the biography of David Zeisberger, published in the 
Christian Herald of February 3d, 1821, an incident is re- 
lated, which is not less shocking to the moral sense of mankind, 
than the reputed attempt of the Austrian tyrant to render the 
Swiss patriot the executioner of his son. 

' About this time (1778) a large sealed letter had been handed 
to him by a Wyandot Indian, signed by the governor of Detroit. 
It contained a positive injunction, with formidable threats annexed 
to it, to wit, " The teachers of the christian Indians shall, without 
delay, go on an expedition with us against the rebels, on the other 
side of the Ohio, kill them, and deliver up their scalps." 5 

In the same memoir, and in Heckewelder's history of the 
Moravian Missions, will be found an account of the final de- 
struction of this flourishing mission, and the forcible removal 



18 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. • 

of the Christian Indians and their teachers. In commenting 
upon these transactions, the London Christian Observer of 
August 31st, 1826, deems it 'incredible' 'that our country- 
men,' among whom British officers are mentioned, ' should 
have countenanced a scheme for the assassination of a band of 
peaceful Christian Missionaries, and the destruction of their 
unoffending converts.' And it adds, 'that the narrators of 
these events were Germans,' and that ' it may not unreasona- 
bly be presumed, that the narrators were under some misun- 
derstanding respecting the secret springs of the whole affair.' 
What these ' secret springs ' were, the pious conductors of that 
excellent work can now determine. 

The recognition of our independence terminated these flagi- 
tious scenes, and they were succeeded by a few years of com- 
parative tranquillity. But the relations between the two coun- 
tries were not permanently established, and discussions soon 
commenced, which assumed a character of severity. They 
were fortunately closed by Jay's treaty, at the moment when a 
war appeared inevitable. 

But during the progress of these discussions^ the usual indi- 
cations of Indian hostilities, such as have preceded and accom- 
panied all our differences with the British government, gave 
Unerring warning of the storm, which was approaching. It 
burst upon our frontiers, and during the administration of Gen- 
eral Washington, this unprovoked war embarrassed and per- 
plexed the infant government. We have neither time nor 
space to review its incidents. We can only group together a 
few of the principal facts, which demonstrate, that the savages 
did not want other counsels, and influence, and aid, in the com- 
mencement and prosecution of the war. Detroit was then, as 
in the period of the revolution, the British Indian headquar- 
ters. The elder M'Kee was at the head of the Indian depart- 
ment, and he was aided by Elliott and Girty, men well quali- 
fied to serve in such a cause, where hands that stayed not, and 
hearts that relented not, and zeal that tired not, could furnish 
examples, which even savages might admire in despair. 

From 1783 to 1790, not less than three thousand persons 
were murdered or dragged into captivity, from the frontiers of 
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. The scalps and the 
prisoners travelled the old war path.* The British Indian de- 



* Marshall's Life of Washington, Vol. V.p. 339, 



Indians in the late War. 



partment was numerous and active. A personal inspection was 
made by Lieutenant Governor Hunter, and a fort was com- 
menced upon the Miami. The hopes of the Indians were elated 
by the celebrated war talk of Lord Dorchester. Profuse issues 
of clothing, provisions, and ammunition, were made to them. 
Several intercepted letters of British officers were published, 
which leave no doubt of the influence exerted upon the In- 
dians. General Wayne in his official report states, 4 that he 
had obtained a victory over the combined force of the hostile 
Indians and a considerable number of the volunteers and mili- 
tia of Detroit.' And this, too, in a time of profound peace 
between the American and British governments ! 

When the Indians fled from the victorious army of Wayne, 
they applied for admittance into the British fort at the foot of 
the Rapids of the Miami. Assurances, that they would find 
shelter there, should the fate of the day prove adverse, had 
been long before given. The commanding officer, however, 
took counsel of his prudence, rather than his promises, and 
closed his gates to the flying savages. This conduct has never 
been forgotten by the Indians, and Tecumthe in his celebrated 
speech to Proctor, reproached the British with this gross de- 
ception. 4 At the battle of the Rapids last war,' said the in- 
dignant chief, ' the Americans certainly defeated us ; and 
when we retreated to our father's fort at that place, the gates 
were shut against us.' And in the speech of Walk-in-the- 
water, the Wyandot chief, when the Wyandots of Brownstown 
were importuned to cross the Detroit river, and join the British 
standard, this untimely occlusion of the fort yet lingered in 
the memory of the Indians. 

In 1812 commenced our second war with England. It was 
preceded in 1811 by hostilities upon the Wabash, where Te- 
cumthe and his brother the Prophet had collected a considera- 
ble band of disaffected Indians, seceders from the established 
authorities of their tribes. This spirit, however, never extend- 
ed far, and it was repressed by the vigorous and decisive cam- 
paign of General Harrison. Tranquillity was restored upon 
the borders, until Christian hands again offered the tomahawk to 
the Indians, and christian presents and promises induced them 
to accept it. In 1812, as in 1775, did the American govern- 
ment exert every effort to save the Indians from embarking in 
a hopeless contest, in which they had neither rights to assert, 
nor wrongs to avenge ; but which was prosecuted for objects, 
that they understood as little as they regarded. 



20 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

The talk of Mr Madison to the Indians in 1812, at the com- 
mencement of the war, contains sentiments so honorable to 
himself and his country, and so appropriately and beautifully 
expressed, that we shall submit to our readers a part of this in- 
teresting document. It may be considered as the manifesto of 
the American government, establishing the principles of its in- 
tercourse with its aboriginal neighbors in the critical circum- 
stances, which imposed new duties upon both. And the con- 
trast between this course, and that pursued by the British 
government, must awaken reflections here and elsewhere, 
which although tardy may yet be useful. 

' The red people who live on the same great Island with the 
white people of the eighteen fires, are made by the great Spirit 
out of the same earth, from parts of it dhTering in color only. My 
regard for all my red children has made me desirous, that the 
bloody tomahawk should be buried between the Osages, the 
Cherokees, and the Choctaws. I wish also that the hands of the 
Shawnese and the Osage should be joined in my presence, as a 
pledge to cherish and observe the peace made at St Louis. 
This was a good peace for both. It is a chain that ought to hold 
them fast in friendship. Neither blood nor rust should ever be 
upon it. 

' I am concerned at the war which has long been kept up by 
the Sacs and Foxes against the Osages ; and that latterly a bloody 
war is carried on between the Osages and Ioways. I now tell my 
red children here present, that this is bad for both parties. They 
must put under my feet their evil intentions against each other ; 
and henceforward live in peace and good will ; each hunting on 
their lands, and working their own soil.' 

4 A father ought to give good advice to his children and it is 
the duty of his children to hearken to it. The people composing 
the eighteen fires, are a great people. You have travelled through 
their country. You see they cover the land, as the stars fill the 
sky, and are as thick as the trees in your forests. Notwithstand- 
ing their great power, the British king has attacked them on the 
great water beyond which he lives. He robbed their ships and 
carried away the people belonging to them. Some of them he 
murdered. He has an old grudge against the eighteen fires, be- 
cause when he tried to make them dig and plant for his people 
beyond the great water, not for themselves, they sent out warriors, 
who beat his warriors ; they drove off the bad chiefs he had sent 
among them, and set up good chiefs of their own. The eighteen 
fires did this when they had not the strength they now have. 
Their blows will now be much heavier, and will soon make him 



Indians in (he late War. 



2} 



do them justice. It happened when the thirteen fires, now in- 
creased to eighteen, forced the British king to treat them as an 
independent nation, one little fire did not join them. This he 
has held ever since. It is there that his agents and traders plot 
quarrels and wars between the eighteen fires and their brethren, 
and between one red tribe and another. Maiden is the place 
where ail the bad birds have their nests. There they are fed with 
false tales against the eighteen fires, and sent out with bloody 
belts in their bills, to drop among the red people, who would oth- 
erwise remain at peace. It is for the good of all the red people, 
as well as the people of the eighteen fires, that a stop should be 
put to this mischief. Their warriors can do it. They are gone 
and going to Canada for this purpose. They want no help from 
their red brethren. They are strong enough without it. The 
British, who are weak, are doing all they can by their bad birds, 
to decoy the red people into the war on their side. I warn all 
the red people to avoid the ruin this must bring upon them. And 
I say to you, my children, your father does not ask you to join 
his warriors. Sit still on your seats ; and be witnesses that they 
are able to beat their enemies, and protect their red friends. 
This is the fatherly advice I give you. 

1 1 have a further advice for my red children. You see how 
the country of the eighteen fires is filled with people. They in- 
crease like the corn they put into the ground. They all have 
good houses to shelter them from all weathers ; good clothes suit- 
able to all seasons ; and as for food of all sorts, you see they have 
enough, and to spare. No man, woman, or child, of the eighteen 
fires ever perished of hunger. Compare all this with the condi- 
tion of the red people. They are scattered here and there in 
handfuls. Their lodges are cold, leaky, and smoky. They have 
hard fare, and often not enough of it. 

' Why this mighty difference ? The reason, my red children, 
is plain. The white people breed cattle and sheep. They plough 
the earth, and make it give them every thing they want. They 
spin and weave. Their heads and their hands make all the ele- 
ments and productions of nature useful to them. Above all, the 
people of the eighteen fires live in constant peace and friendship. 
No tomahawk has ever been raised by one against another. Not 
a drop of blood has ever touched the chain that holds them to- 
gether as one family. All their belts are white belts. It is in 
your power to be like them. The ground that feeds one lodge 
by hunting, would feed a great band by the plough and the hoe. 
The Great Spirit has given you, like your white brethren, good 
heads to contrive, strong arms, and active bodies. Use them like 
your white brethren ; not all at once, which is difficult, but by 
little and little, which is easy. Especially, live in peace with one 



22 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

another, like your white brethren of the eighteen fires ; and like 
them your little sparks will grow into great fires. You will be 
well fed ; well clothed ; dwell in good houses, and enjoy the hap- 
piness for which you, like them, were created. The Great Spirit 
is the friend of men of all colors. He made them to be friends 
of one another. The more they are so, the more he will be their 
friend. These are the words of your father to his red children. 
The Great Spirit, who is the father of us all, approves them. Let 
them pass through the ear, into the heart. Carry them home to 
your people. And as long as you remember this visit to your 
father of the eighteen fires, remember these are his last and best 
words to you.' 

In the same spirit a council was held on the western frontier, 
by three distinguished gentlemen, Governors Meigs, Worthing- 
ton, and Morrow, the objects and result of which were commu- 
nicated by them to the public, in the following terms. 

' The council with the Indian tribes on the western frontier 
having been concluded, the Commissioners deem it their duty to 
give to their fellow citizens a concise view of the proceedings and 
result. 

' The Commissioners, according to their instructions, have en- 
deavored to ascertain their views and dispositions. They inform- 
ed them of the inevitable consequences of any act of hostility on 
their part, that the President stood in no need of their assist- 
ance in the war with Great Britain, and that for their own sakes, 
he desired them to remain quiet and pursue their usual occupa- 
tions. The chiefs, in behalf of the tribes that attended, have 
made professions of friendship and attachment to the United 
States, and have, in the most positive manner, declared their in- 
tention to adhere to and observe the existing treaties, to remain 
neutral in the present war, and to reject the overtures of the Brit- 
ish (which they state to have been repeated and pressing) to 
engage in it.' 

Most unfortunately for this devoted race, these overtures 
sometimes assumed a shape, which few Indians can resist. In 
Buchanan's Sketches, to which we have already referred, the 
speech of Cornplanter to the Governor of Pennsylvania is 
quoted in these terms. ' Great Britain requested us to join 
with them in the conflict against the Americans, and promised 
the Indians land and liquor.' (p. 56.) When such objects are 
attained by such means, a fearful responsibility is assumed, no 
less at the tribunal of public opinion, than of justice and moral- 
ity. These means were but too successful. Many of the 
northern Indians joined the British standard, and as the vicissi^ 



Indians in the late War. 



aides of war left our frontier exposed or defenceless, they did 
the accustomed work of death and desolation. 

But no event, since the discovery of the continent, has pro- 
duced greater changes in the character, feelings, and situation 
of the Indians, than this war. During the latter part of 1812, 
and the whole of 1813, the north and the west were almost 
depopulated. Their ordinary occupations were abandoned, 
and men, women, and children assembled around the British 
headquarters upon the Detroit river, the warriors for blood, 
pay, and plunder, and their families for food and clothing. It 
is said that twelve thousand rations were daily issued to this 
subsidized host.* And where are they now ? Gone, the vic- 
tims of war, and want, and disease. They perished by thou- 
sands, and however their * watch-fires 'f and the other inci* 
dents of savage life may furnish materials for romantic delinea- 
tion, their recollection now excites a deeper sympathy for the 
fate of those, who gave life and animation to the scene. Their 
numbers pressed heavily upon the resources of the British com- 
manding officer. Supplies were obtained with difficulty, and 
doled out with parsimony. Their usual habits and employ- 
ments were abandoned. These were succeeded by the list- 
lessness of a sedentary camp, without the recurrence of those 
duties, which give some variety to that most irksome sit- 
uation. A warrior has no system of tactics to learn and no la- 
bor to perform; and when associated with civilized troops, he 
must abandon the chase, because the animals he pursues retire 
from the vicinity of large bodies of men. No resource, there- 
fore, was left for physical exertion or mental excitement, except 
the war parties, which were occasionally detached upon scalping 
expeditions. Such was the disposition of General Harrison's 
force, that these were 6 few and far between,' and the time of the 
warriors was generally passed in a state of morbid inactivity. 
They were collected in unusual numbers, and many of them 
were as unaccustomed to the climate, as to the mode of life, and 
the absence of employment. Under these circumstances, dis- 
ease was necessarily generated, and it was exacerbated by all 
the symptoms of a disasttous campaign. The hopeless prospect 
before them was rendered still more gloomy by the presence 
of their families, remote from home, and depending for food 

* Quarterly Review, No. 61, p. 78. f Id. p. 78. 

4 



f 



24 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

and clothing upon their 4 allies,' whose capture or retreat ap- 
peared but too probable. These causes produced their full 
effect. A grievous mortality prevailed among them, and when 
the American army made its descent upon the Canadian shore 
in 1813, there was no foe to oppose it. Proctor had fled with 
the warriors who adhered to his cause. But much of his 
savage force had previously disappeared, either in the recesses 
of the forest, where shelter was nearest, or in the grave. 
Horrible stories are told of the miseries they endured. We 
had no pleasure in hearing them, and we should now have 
none in relating them. Whatever, in the extremity of human 
suffering, man has done or endured, these wretched outcasts 
were doomed to do and bear. 4 Father,' said the Indians to 
General McArthur, at the first interview, which they sought 
with an American officer, after the retreat of Proctor, ' Father, 
we are now unarmed. We are at your mercy. Do with us. 
as you think proper. Our squaws and children are perishing. 
We ourselves are also perishing. If you take us by the hand, 
we are willing to take up the tomahawk against any power, 
white or red, which you may direct.' But this physical 
wretchedness was not the only evil entailed upon them by their 
participation in the war. Their spirits were broken. The 
series of disasters which occurred, destroyed all confidence in 
themselves ; and when the peace of Ghent restored the Amer- 
ican and British governments to their accustomed relations, 
and the Indians found that all the promises of ' land and liquor,'' 
which had been made to them, had ended in the loss of one 
half of their people, and the return of the other to their de- 
pendence upon the American government, they yielded with 
sullen indifference to the fate which they could not avoid. 

This feeling was well expressed by Wabesha, the principal 
Sioux chief, to the British commanding officer at Drummond's 
Island, in 1815. Wabesha is venerable for his age, and has 
always maintained a decided influence over his people. He 
was treated with marked attention, and valuable presents were 
spread before him. 6 My Father,' said he to Colonel McDow- 
ell, then commanding the post, ' what is this I see before me ? 
A few knives and blankets. Is this all you promised us at the 
beginning of the war ? Where are those promises you made 
us at Michilimackinac, and sent to our villages on the Missis- 
sippi ? You told us you would never let fall the hatchet until 
the Americans were driven beyond the mountains. That our 



Indians in the late War, 



25 



British Father would never make peace, without consulting 
his red children. Has that come to pass ? We never knew of 
this peace. We are now told, it was made by our Great Father 
beyond the water, without the knowledge of his war chiefs ; 
that it is your duty to obey his orders. What is this to us ? 
Will these paltry presents pay for the men we have lost, both 
in battle and on the road ? Will they soothe the feelings of 
our friends ? Will they make good your promises to us ? For 
myself, I am an old man. I have lived long, and always found 
the means of supporting myself, and I can do so still.'* 

In this general retrospect, it has been no part of our object 
to excite feelings which time has happily allayed. For our- 
selves, we were willing, that the story of these enormities 
should be forgotten. The losses and sufferings were our 
country's, and we had little reason to expect, that any attack 
upon its character and conduct, from the party which inflicted 
the injury, would render a public examination of these facts 
necessary. But so it is ; imposing charges have gone forth to 
the world against us, and our relations with our aboriginal 
neighbors have furnished the occasion for accusations, which 
have been preferred in no measured terms. The subject has 
been frequently discussed in the British journals, and always 
in a tone of reproof and severity ; but it was reserved for the 
sixtyfirst number of the London Quarterly Review, formally 
to arraign and censure the United States, in an article, not 
less reprehensible for its temper and sentiments, than false in 
its statements and conclusions. Its whole scope can be fully 
understood only by an examination ; but its tone and spirit 
may be estimated from a few quotations. 

1 If the mode of warfare of the Indians was ferocious, that of 
the enemy with whom we had to contend [the Americans] was 
equally so.' p. 102. 

' However it may be attempted to preserve appearances by 
fraudulent and compulsory purchases of land, and declarations of 
benevolent intentions towards their injured possessors, it has al- 
ways been the boast of American policy, that " the Indians shall 
be made to vanish hefore civilization, as the snow melts before the 
sunbeam." ' [The words printed in italics, are marked in the 
original as a quotation, and the idea is thus conveyed, that this 
ferocious sentiment is an acknowledged maxim of the American 

* From Joseph Rolette, Esq. of Prairie du Chien, who was present 
at the interview. 



26 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

government. Let the place be pointed out, where this sentence 
is to he found, in a connexion to justify the inference obviously 
deducible from it, and we shall then have reason not to believe it 
a fabrication.] ' How far,' continues this journal, ' the practice 
has been assimilated to the design, may be gathered from the 
butchery by the Kentuckians, of Indian families in cold blood, 
after their surprise at Tippacanoe on the Wabash ; from massa- 
cres committed by General Harrison's troops in their attacks on 
the Indian settlements in the autumn of J 812 ; from the murder, 
after the affair at the Moravian Town, of squaws and children, 
who received no more mercy, than did the wounded warriors ; 
and from the more recent and authorized horrors of General 
Jackson's Seminole war. 5 p. 108. 

' We affirm without fear of contradiction or of error, that there 
is not to be found, on the face of the globe, a race of men, so 
utterly abandoned to vice and crime — so devoid of all fear of God 
and regard towards man, as the outsettlers of Kentucky, Ohio, 
and the other back states.' p. 94. 

' It would surely have been a despicable submission to the 
mawkish sensibility of our patriots, to have rejected the coopera- 
tion of the Indians in repelling an invading enemy, who at least 
equalled them in bloodthirsty qualities.' p. 102. 

This article has gone forth to Christendom, and as yet un- 
contradicted. The whole discussion is in this temper, and spe- 
cific charges are urged against us, with all due formality, 
evincing equal disregard of courtesy and truth. And shall our 
countrymen sit still, with folded arms, while the civilized world 
are believing, and judging, and condemning, deceived, as they 
well may be, by such bold assumptions, and by the imposing 
particulars of time, place, and circumstance, with which the 
statements are surrounded ? And this, too, because all must 
be bland and courteous in literaiy discussions ? We confess 
that we have no part in such frigid philosophy. Vainly shall 
we look back with pride, or forward with hope, or around us 
with congratulation, if we do not cherish a sacred regard for 
national character, and an unshaken determination to maintain 
and defend it against the detractions of malevolence, and the 
attacks of unprincipled illiberality. 

It is certainly among the wayw T ard inconsistencies of human 
nature, and excites our surprise, while we deplore its occur- 
rence, that a literary journal, which has produced powerful 
effects upon public opinion, and whose general execution is 
honorable to the age and nation, which it has so often instruct- 



Indians in the late War. 



27 



ed and delighted, should systematically display, upon some 
important topics, a deep malignity of feeling and of purpose, 
equally incompatible with the discharge of the high functions 
it has assumed, and offensive to every reader of generous 
sentiments, from the St Lawrence to the Ganges. Whenever 
its peculiar dogmas, religious or political, are impugned, all 
sense of right, equity, and truth, seems to be forgotten or 
abandoned, or else all knowledge to be turned as by a miracle 
into total ignorance. This predetermined hostility has been 
heretofore too visible on all subjects, connected with the social 
and political institutions of the United States ; with their past 
history and future prospects ; their government, laws, religion, 
civil condition, and progress in the arts. These topics are the 
withering blast of the Simoom to its genius, taste, and learning. 
We are told that a better spirit is now gaining ground in its pa- 
ges, and we are glad that some recent proofs would seem to 
encourage this expectation. Let it be understood that we are 
not here speaking of what this Journal is or will be, but of 
what it has been. It is only of sins already committed, that 
we complain. 

By peculiar circumstances we have been led to a knowledge 
of many of the occurrences, which form the groundwork of the 
charges, in the article to which we have referred, and we are 
persuaded that a correct relation of them will redeem our 
country from the imputations with which it has been assailed. 
Our Indian relations have frequently furnished, either directly 
or indirectly, the pretence for these misrepresentations • and 
6 we think it due to the ' world, which may 4 have been deceiv- 
ed, to state the real merits of the case, and to refute, as we 
trust we shall be able to do, these slanders, which in our 
opinion have been suffered to remain too long unanswered, 
through the same medium, the press, in which they have been 
conveyed.'* 

Influenced by these considerations, we have been led in the 
preceding part of this article to a retrospective view of the con- 
duct of the British and American governments towards the 
Indians. If we are not greatly deceived, the facts, we have 
placed before our readers, will be deemed as discreditable to 
the one government, as they are honorable to the other. This 
general historical examination was necessary to a distinct view 



* Quarterly Review, No. 57, p. 86. 



28 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



of the subject, and to a more particular investigation of the 
accusations boldly preferred by the Quarterly. These we 
shall proceed to meet and confute. 

The tenure, by which the primitive inhabitants of this conti- 
nent held their land, is a question of metaphysical speculation, 
rather than one of practical right. All will agree, that they 
were entitled to as much as would supply them with subsist- 
ence, in the mode to which they were accustomed. And 
there will probably be an assent, little less general, to the pro- 
position, that whatever was not thus wanted and employed 
might be appropriated by others to their own use. The new 
race of men, who landed upon these shores, found that their 
predecessors had affixed few distinctive marks of property in 
the forests where they roamed. There were none of those 
permanent improvements, which elsewhere by universal assent 
become the evidence and the security of individual appropria- 
tion. From Hudson's Bay to Cape Horn, the various nations 
of Europe have formed settlements, and have gradually by 
force or purchase reduced the aboriginal inhabitants to a state 
of vassallage, or driven them into the interior. European 
sovereigns have divided this immense country, by their char- 
ters or their treaties, into many colonies and provinces, and have 
assumed a general jurisdiction over them, without the slightest 
regard to the primitive occupants. And the hoisting of the 
first flag, and the burying of the first bottle, are important inci- 
dents, which have occasioned many a perplexing discussion to 
grave diplomatists. 

Almost all the country, now composing the Atlantic portion 
of the United States, was thus acquired by England. Our 
colonial records contain the history of many of these negotia- 
tions and purchases, but time has swept away almost every 
vestige of the consideration paid to the Indians. Since the 
establishment of their independence, the United States have 
adopted the system of acquiring the aboriginal title by peacea- 
ble purchase, but they have adopted it with an important 
change, consolatory to all. who look with sympathy upon this 
falling race. The plan of permanent annuities guaranties to 
the Indians a never failing resource against want, and its bene- 
ficial effects are apparent in the improved condition of the 
Wyandots, the Shawnese, and the Miamies. But one instance 
in the history of the United States can be found, where they 
have acquired any title to the unappropriated country by force : 



Purchase of Indian Lands. 



and that was at the termination of the wanton and unprovoked 
hostilities of the Creeks, originating probably in foreign influ- 
ence, but prosecuted in a spirit of atrocious cruelty, not often 
displayed, even in Indian warfare. Peace, without exemplary 
chastisement, would have been but an invitation to new aggres- 
sions. 

The condition of our primitive people, is a moral phenome- 
non, perhaps without a parallel in the whole history of man. 
During two centuries, they have been in contact with a civil- 
ized people. They have seen our improvements, and felt 
our superiority. They have relinquished their bows, and 
arrows, and skins, and flint knives, and stone tomahawks, and 
have adopted our arms and ammunition, our cloths, and many 
of our instruments of iron and steel. But in their own moral 
qualities, if they have not receded, they certainly have not ad- 
vanced. A principle of progressive improvement seems almost 
inherent in human nature. Communities of men, as well as 
individuals, are stimulated by a desire to meliorate their condi- 
tion. There is nothing stationary around us. We are all 
striving in the career of life to acquire riches, or honor, or 
power, or some other object, whose possession is to realize the 
day dreams of our imaginations ; and the aggregate of these 
efforts constitutes the advance of society. 

But there is little of all this in the constitution of our savages. 
Like the bear, and deer, and buffalo of his own forests, an 
Indian lives as his father lived, and dies as his father died. He 
never attempts to imitate the arts of his civilized neighbors. 
His life passes away in a succession of listless indolence, and of 
vigorous exertion to provide for his animal wants, or to gratify 
his baleful passions. He never looks around him, with a spirit 
of emulation, to compare his situation with that of others, and 
to resolve on improving it. In a season of abundance, he never 
provides for a seaspn of scarcity. Want never teaches him to 
be provident, nor misery to be industrious. This fatuity is not 
the result of ignorance. Efforts, however ill directed, have 
not been wanting to teach and reclaim him. But he is perhaps 
destined to disappear with the forests, which have afforded 
him food and clothing, and whose existence seems essential to 
his own. 

Under such circumstances, what ignorance, or folly, or mor- 
bid jealousy of our national progress does it not argue, to expect 
that our civilized border would become stationary, and some of 



30 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare, 

the fairest portions of the globe be abandoned to hopeless ster- 
ility. That a few naked wandering barbarians should stay the 
march of cultivation and improvement, and hold in a state of 
perpetual unproductiveness, immense regions formed by Provi- 
dence to support millions of human beings ? And has England 
furnished us with any example of such a system of self denial, 
or rather of canting weakness ? We will not inquire in India, 
for there no barbarians, strictly speaking, are found. But the 
Australasian continent is now a British province, acquired and 
settled within the memory of the present generation. And 
where .are its aboriginal inhabitants ? Let the following extract 
from the Sydney Gazette of December 16th, 1824, answer this 
question. 

£ The overseer, finding that they had nearly expended their 
arms, he and his men dismounted, tied their horses together and 
faced about, commencing a fire of musketry on the natives, then 
charged them with the bayonet, until they were completely routed 
and dispersed. The natives left sixteen men dead on the field, 
and their weapons were completely destroyed. 

6 After the fight, the party returned in safety to Mudgee.' 

That nothing short of that whole continent, exceeding Eu- 
rope in extent, will satisfy the forbearance of the British gov- 
ernment, we have full evidence in the measures, which are in 
progress.* And what permanent advantages, either physical 
or moral, have the Australasians derived from their civilized 

* ' King's Cove, Port Cockburn, Melville Island, Australasia, No- 
vember 12, 1824. 

' On our arrival at Sydney from England, we hired a merchant ves- 
sel (the Countess of Harcourt), which we loaded with various provi- 
sions, and embarked in her a detachment of 25 men of the 3d regiment 
of Buffs, commanded by Captain Barlow. We also loaded a colonial 
brig with various agricultural and mechanical instruments, necessary 
to form a settlement. After a pleasant passage of six weeks, we ar- 
rived at the destined spot, at the northern extremity of New Holland 
(now called Australasia), named Port Essington, in longitude 131° 
east of Greenwich, where we landed all our mariners (46 in number), 
and immediately hoisted the British flag on a high tree, amidst a salute 
of 21 guns from the Tamar, a volley of small arms from the troops, 
and the repeated huzzas of all hands. Perhaps never was a martial 
sound heard here before. The natives were so struck with terror, 
that they all fled away.' 

Simple people ! you had no reason for fear. None but Americans 
cause barbarians ' to vanish as the snow melts before the sunbeams.' 

The account then proceeds to describe in detail the defensive works, 
which were erected, and the force stationed there. 



Purchase of Indian Lands. 



neighbors ? We hear of no treaties of cession, no * purchases 
compulsory or voluntary, no mutual discussions, no annuities 
for future relief. The land is wanted, and it is taken. 

But the conversion of our gloomy forests into cultivated 
fields, which is described as the peculiar reproach of the 
American government, was commenced and zealously pro- 
secuted, as we have already seen, before that government 
existed, and with such effect, that the royal authorities, some 
years before their overthrow, had begun to cover with their 
grants the great valley of the Mississippi. 

At the cession of Canada to England, the French settle- 
ments were principally confined to the country upon the St 
Lawrence, about Montreal and below it. A few small military 
posts, in the extensive regions to the west, with little cultivated 
belts surrounding them, constituted the whole of the results of 
French power, and the whole evidence of French enterprise. 
The integrity of the Indian territory, north of the great lakes, 
was almost inviolate. Since then, the population of the country 
has been more than quadrupled, and its settlements have ad- 
vanced to the upper lakes, and now rest upon Lake Superior. 
Here, as elsewhere, the tide of civilization has borne before it 
the tenants of the forest, and from Montreal to Lake Huron, a 
few small reservations are all, that are left to them of the 
vast possessions they inherited. We have not the elements of 
an accurate calculation in our power, but we are satisfied, that 
the number of Indians living in the unsettled country, within 
the limits of the United States, is far greater, in proportion to 
its extent, than can be found in any part of Canada. Nor is 
the progress of the English settlements limited to this frontier 
of the British dominions. They have reached the Arctic 
Circle, and are spreading through the vast possessions of the 
Hudson's Bay Company. The mercantile sovereigns, to whom 
that country was granted by the British crown, are establishing 
their posts, half commercial, half military, wherever a band is 
to be subjected or a muskrat to be caught.* And with w T hat 
effect upon the means and morals of the natives, let the facts 

* ' They,' speaking- of the Northwest Company (now consolidated 
with the Hudson's Bay Company), ' planted their forts and trading- 
posts over a wide range of territory, and established a more despotic 
rule, than could be found to exist, even in any Asiatic governments 
Notices of the Claims of the Hudson's Bay Company, p. 39 



32 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

decide, which we shall quote by and by, from Captain Frank- 
lin and Dr Richardson, who have lately traversed those distant 
regions. 

But the most extensive speculation, we have ever known in 
the acquisition of Indian title, for we cannot call it purchase, 
unless the word be technically used, was that made by Lord 
Selkirk, upon Red river, the settlement of which was com- 
menced in 1812. This country was granted to him by the 
Hudson's Bay Company, and in the project for settlement it 
is stated, that £ a tract of land of some millions of acres, in 
point of soil and climate inferior to none of equal extent in 
British America, is to be disposed of.' This tract contained 
117,000 square miles,* or 74,880,000 acres, considerably more 
than one third of the whole quantity ceded to the United States. 
It is equal in extent to all the states north and east of the 
Delaware, and was acquired by a little parchment and wax, 
without even the ceremony of a purchase, and without the ex- 
penditure of a single word in promises, or a single shilling in 
presents or payment to the Indians, f By what 4 degree of fair 
dealing ' this was effected, we must leave to our brethren on 
the other side of the ocean to determine. 

There is a branch of our Indian relations, which it may be 
well to examine in detail, as it has been sometimes misunder- 
stood, and sometimes misrepresented. The subject is thus sneer- 
ingly introduced in the article, which we have before quoted. 

? By what degree of fair dealing the purchases of Indian lands 
have been regulated, since the peace, may be learnt from an ab- 
stract in Mr Buchanan's work, (p. 152.) By the items in this 
formal account current it appears, that to the year 1820, above 
190 millions of acres had been purchased from the Indians, for 
which they had received in annuities something more than two 
millions and a half of dollars ! while the profits of the republican 
government, in vending their acquisitions by retail, or " the bal- 
ance of gain," as Mr Buchanan calls it, on the part of the 
United States in dealing with the Indians, amounted to above 
two hundred and thirteen millions of dollars.' p. 109. 

In all of this, there is enough of truth, to elude the charge 
of deliberate falsehood, and yet so much of error, as to pre- 
sent a result, utterly fallacious. 

— — — , ■ ■ -y 

* Communications of Mercator, from the Montreal Herald, a pam- 
phlet published in 1817, p. 50. 
f Communications of Mercator, &c. p. 53. 



Purchase of Indian Lands. 



33 



Assuming Mr Buchanan's statement and estimate to be 
nominally correct, still every one, in the slightest degree ac- 
quainted with the operation of our land system, must be aware, 
that such calculations of the value of the property could be 
made, only by the most sanguine political economist, or a most 
blind political adversary. A considerable proportion of the 
land in every part of the western country, where these cessions 
have been obtained, is unfit for cultivation and improvement. 
Ages will pass away, before it can be all amalgamated with the 
common mass of property. And during that period, it will re- 
main an unproductive fund, unless the proposition submitted by 
Colonel Benton to the Senate of the United States should be 
adopted. His proposition is founded on this very fact, that the 
duration of the present system of land sales will be indefinite, 
if the price be not reduced. He therefore proposes, that this 
reduction should be made at short and fixed intervals, and that 
eventually a gratuitous distribution should be made of all that 
is unsold. He illustrates the subject, by the operation of the 
present system in Ohio, where, after an experiment of thirty 
years, more than half the land is the property of the govern- 
ment. 

The expense of surveying the public land amounts to no in- 
considerable sum, and the annual appropriation for this object 
is about $70,000. The fees and salaries of the officers, and 
the various contingent claims, inseparable from such an extend- 
ed system, present another important deduction from this esti- 
mate of profits. In all the new states, inchoate rights have 
been acquired by actual settlers, which have in many instances 
been confirmed by the General Government, and extensive dis- 
tricts have been thus gratuitously alienated. There has been 
also assigned for the support of common schools, and wisely 
and providently assigned, one thirtysixth part of all the national 
domains, besides two or more townships in each State and 
Territory, formed from it, for the support of seminaries, devoted 
to the higher branches of learning. And in one section of the 
country, another thirtysixth part has been appropriated to the 
maintenance of a religious establishment ; not in a form pre- 
scribed by law, but as each local vicinage should determine. 

Such was the operation of the several causes, affecting the 
sale of the public land, that up to the 30th of June, 1819, 
within six months of the period alluded to in the Quarterly, as 
we are officially informed by the reports of the treasury de- 



34 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

partment to Congress, the whole amount received on account 
of these sales, from the organization of the government, was 
but $18,287,828 dollars. 

An experienced and intelligent senator, Mr King, who has 
since retired from the councils of his country, after a long life 
devoted to its service, instituted a minute inquiry into this sub- 
ject, with a view to ascertain its actual effect upon the fiscal 
operations of the government. The reports, which were re- 
ceived from the executive officers, in consequence of his 
suggestions, disclosed all the facts, necessary to a correct deci- 
sion. And it was his opinion, on a careful examination of the 
subject, that as a mere pecuniary question, the acquisition and 
sale of lands by the United States had proved an unprofitable 
adventure. It requires but a moderate portion of that profound 
science of profit and loss, which is not confined to ' republican 
governments,' to show, that the value of any article must be 
estimated by its use, or its power of immediate conversion into 
money, and if the article itself is useless and unproductive, and 
cannot be sold for an almost indefinite period of time, it has 
in reality, no present actual value. Almost any reasonable sum 
paid for it, would, by the ordinary operation of interest, exceed 
in a few years the worth of the property. 

After deducting the waste and sterile land, the gratuitous 
concessions, the specific appropriations, and the expenses of 
survey and sale, from the present actual value of the land, 
where shall we find that ' balance of gain,' which Mr Buchanan, 
in his ignorance, and the Quarterly, in its worse than ignorance, 
have swelled to so formidable an amount ? The soundest 
statesmen in the United States do not look to the public lands 
as a source of revenue. In the annual estimates submitted by 
the treasury department to Congress, this branch of national 
income is computed at a million of dollars.* We have no rea- 
son to expect, that it will exceed that amount. Subtracting from 
tliis estimate the expenses of survey and sale, and the other 
contingent claims upon this fund, a sum not sufficient to meet 
the authorized expenditures for the service of the Indian De- 
partment will remain in the treasury. In 1824, the appropriation 
for this object was $424,978 ; in 1825, it was $730,000 ; and 

* We exclude the estimate for 1827, because circumstances con- 
nected with the change of the credit system, and other considerations 
stated in the annual treasury report, have increased it beyond the ex- 
perience of past or the prospect of future years. 



Indian Lands in Canada. 



35 



In 1826, it was $1,009,741. Every year brings with it pecu- 
liar circumstances, which vary the amount appropriated. Such, 
during the past year, were the sufferings of die Florida Indians, 
and the incidents connected with the Creek negotiation. These 
objects require specific appropriations. But so interesting and 
extensive are the relations, existing between the United States 
and the Indians, that we have no reason to anticipate any very 
considerable diminution of this expenditure. It commenced 
with the commencement of the government, and has gradually 
and steadily increased ; and it will continue, as long as Provi- 
dence shall continue the Indians in their present state of want 
and imbecility. In the annual message of the President of the 
United States, transmitted to Congress December 5th, 1826, it 
is stated, that the 4 appropriations to indemnify these unfortunate 
remnants of another race, unable alike to share in the enjoy- 
ments and to exist in the presence of civilization,' have in- 
creased to an unexpected amount. They are applied to the 
payment of annuities, promised in our various treaties with the 
Indians ; to aid the efforts, which are making to improve their 
condition ; to procure for them occasional supplies of food and. 
clothing ; to the purchase of horses and other domestic animals, 
to improve and promote their agricultural operations ; to the 
support of blacksmiths and other artizans, employed to labor 
for them ; and to the payment of the various officers, necessary 
to protect them, and to serve as the means of communication, 
between them and the government and citizens of the United 
States. If, then, the produce of this public stock is barely 
equal to the expense entailed upon the country by its acquisi- 
tion, we shall in vain seek for ' the profits of the American 
government.' 

But our search in another direction will be more successful, 
and justly offensive as it may be to delicate nerves, it is never- 
theless true, that a regal government is trafficking in this pro- 
scribed article. We are not able to exhibit 1 the items of a 
formal account current,' for these matters have been managed 
in the Canadas, with prudential secrecy. Much of the public 
land there has been granted upon a system of favoritism, as 
rewards for past services, or as motives of future ones. But 
time and experience produce wonderful changes in the affairs 
of this world, and it is not now considered disreputable for the 
regal government to exchange solid acres for sordid pelf. We 
shall quote, in proof of this assertion, a document, whose authen- 



36 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



ticity will not be questioned. It is the public notification of 
the Executive Council of the Province of Upper Canada, 
signed by order of his Excellency, the Lieutenant Governor, 
in council. It thus commences. 

' For the information of persons arriving in Upper Canada as 
settlers, the following summary of the rules, which his Majesty's 
government has thought fit to lay down for the future regulation 
of grants of land in the Province, in conformity to the system, 
which has been recently adopted with respect to other Colonies of 
his Majesty, has been prepared in conformity to instructions/rom 
Lord BathurstS 

It then proceeds to establish nineteen regulations on this 
subject, three of which we shall quote. 

' 1. A valuation will be forthwith made of the lands throughout 
this Colony, and average prices will be struck for each district. 

' 2. All the lands in the Colony, not hitherto granted and ap- 
propriated for public purposes, will be offered for sale at the aver- 
age prices thus fixed. 

' 3. The purchase money is to be paid by four quarterly, or five 
annual instalments, as the party applying may desire, but in the 
latter case, legal interest shall be charged, and shall be payable 
annually from the time of making the agreement. A discount of 
ten per cent, will be allowed for ready money payments.' 

The quarterly and annual instalments, the legal interest, and 
the discount of ten per cent, are highly creditable to the fiscal 
Jmoivledge of Lord Bathurst, and it is due to candor to say, 
that not a member of the republican cabinet could have de- 
vised a better system for ' vending these acquisitions by retail, 9 
and so highly is it esteemed, that it is extended to i other colo- 
nies of his Majesty.' 

But the newspapers have informed us, that a contract was 
made between the British government and certain individuals for 
the conveyance to them of one seventh part of the public lands 
in Upper Canada. The details of this bargain we have never 
seen. But commissioners were sent from England to appraise 
the lands, and it is understood, that the, arrangement has been 
completed. The consideration paid was said to be one mil- 
lion of pounds sterling, about one fourth part of the sum re- 
ceived by the United States for the sale of all its public lands, 
from the organization of the government to July, 1819. And 
this for one seventh part only of one of the most remote colo- 
nies of the British crown. 



Indian Lands in Canada. 



37 



But even Lord Selkirk, with all his pride of ancestry, did 
not overlook the important consideration of money, while pro- 
jecting his colonizing schemes. In the project to which we 
have before alluded, he says, the land 4 will be sold extremely 
cheap.'' All this is as it should be. No government, not 
wholly abandoned to a system of favoritism or prodigality, 
would be so regardless of the future, as to cast away a source 
of income, so unexceptionable as this. Such ' mawkish sensi- 
bility' will find little sympathy in the present age. But what 
shall be thought of the practical wisdom of a journal, which 
flouts such a principle f This, too, when it has been recognised 
by its own government, and is in active and profitable opera- 
tion ! Whether it be owing to ignorance, or to any less pardon- 
able quality, let its readers determine. 

But it is not alone in ' vending these acquisitions,' that the 
influence of the republican example has been felt. It has be- 
gun to operate with equal force, in obtaining them. The in- 
quiries, which we have instituted, have satisfied us, that no 
system of permanent annuities has heretofore been adopted in 
the Canadas, as a consideration for cessions obtained from the 
Indians. But in June, 1825, an arrangement was made at 
Amherstburg by the British authorities with a band of the 
Chippewas, residing upon the River St Clair, for the extinction 
of their title to a tract of country, extending from that river to 
Matchedash Bay in Lake Huron. Two small reservations 
were made, and an annuity of $3000 was secured to the 
grantors. But there was a principle engrafted in this treaty, 
which may teach even the republican government a salutary 
lesson of thrift, and which has never probably occurred to their 
commissioners, as it is not to be found in any of their compacts 
with the Indians. With a profitable regard to the rapid de- 
clension and eventual extinction of these hapless people, a stip- 
ulation was introduced into this instrument, providing, that when 
one half of the band shall become extinct, one half of the 
annuity shall cease. And the human and the pecuniary reduc- 
tion are thus to proceed, pari passu, until death shall have done 
its office. 

We have not ourselves seen this treaty, but a friend to whom 
Wawwawnosh, the chief of the band, exhibited the counter- 
original, has given us an abstract of its stipulations. In the 
United States, these conventions are annually published in the 
statute books, and are thus spread before the nation and the 



38 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. - 



world. But in the British possessions, publicity is never given 
to them. 

If in any branch of this examination we may appear to treat 
the subject with undue levity, we can assure our readers, that 
the tone is assumed with the hope to repress more indignant 
feelings. We look with deep sympathy on the condition of 
this feeble remnant, who, like the autumnal foliage of their own 
forests, are scattered by every blast, but to whom no spring will 
bring renovation ; and we regard with deep solicitude, every 
effort for their preservation and melioration. Not even a par- 
tiality for the character of our country would tempt us to con- 
ceal their wrongs, or to magnify their errors. But the callous 
malevolence of the article, which has rendered this discussion 
necessary, cannot always be met with perfect equanimity, and 
we may be allowed to sneer at assertions and insinuations, 
whose falsehood is too palpable for serious refutation. 

There is one consideration, connected with the cession of 
land by the Indians, too important, in a fair examination of the 
subject, to be overlooked. The advance of the white settle- 
ments is the signal for the recession of the game. There is 
always an extensive interval of border country, between our 
cultivated frontier, and the permanent possessions of the In- 
dians. Their unremitted efforts to procure food and clothing, 
cause a rapid diminution of wild animals in this district ; and as 
these animals flee from destruction, they are followed by those, 
who look to them for sustenance. The district, thus abandon- 
ed, becomes useless to the natives, and this is the land, which 
is generally acquired by our treaties. In many instances, and 
we speak from personal observation, the amount paid for these 
cessions has been more valuable to the Indians, than all the 
animals existing there, whose flesh and furs are sought by 
them. 

We come now to other topics. 4 It is not necessary to prove 
in this place for the fiftieth time,' says the Reviewer, ' that our 
cause was common with that of the Indian nations. Against 
them, as against us, the Americans had been the real aggres- 
sors. 1 With what truth these assertions are advanced, will be 
best determined by a brief examination of the various acts of 
the American government towards the Indians, and by a com- 
parison of these with the course, which has been pursued by 
the British government. 

Our attention has already been called to the unremitting ex- 



Recent Treaties ivith Indians. 



39 



ertions of the republican government to restrain the Indians 
from hostilities ; to induce them, whenever a contest between 
their white neighbors appeared unavoidable, to remain in their 
own country, and suffer the storm to pass away, without expos- 
ing themselves to its violence. In the same spirit, hostile tribes 
have been brought together, and the tomahawk buried beneath 
the ashes of the council fire. 

The whole history of the intercourse, between the aboriginal 
inhabitants of this continent, and the European invaders and 
their descendants, does not furnish a more consolatory specta- 
cle, than the council held at Prairie du Chien upon the Missis- 
sippi in August, 1825. During many generations, a war had 
been waged between the Chippewas and the Sioux. Its origin 
is lost in the depths of time, and no other motive for its prose- 
cution has existed, since these tribes have been known to us, 
than the thirst of revenge, and the necessity of having some 
enemy, from whom trophies of victory might be won. More 
recently the Sacs, and Foxes, and Ioways joined the Chippe- 
was, and a crisis seemed fast approaching in the northwest, 
which threatened to anticipate the operation of all the other 
causes, to which the sufferings and declension of the Indians 
are attributable. Nothing could have averted this result, but 
the powerful interference of the United States, and it was in- 
terposed promptly and efficaciously. That 4 the Indians might 
not vanish as the snow melts before the sunbeam,' commis- 
sioners were appointed to meet the various tribes, interested in 
this procedure, and to conclude a peace among them. This 
was brought about at the expense of the United States, and the 
preamble of the treaty so fully explains its objects, that we shall 
quote it, as another proof of the £ exterminating ' policy of the 
republican government. 

4 The United States of America, have seen with much regret, 
that wars have for many years been carried on between the Sioux 
and Chippewas, and more recently, between the confederated 
tribes of Sacs and Foxes, and the Sioux, and also between the 
Ioways and the Sioux ; which, if not terminated, may extend to the 
other tribes, and involve the Indians upon the Missouri, the Mis- 
sissippi, and the Lakes, in general hostilities. In order therefore 
to promote peace among these tribes, and to establish boundaries 
among them and the other tribes, who live in their vicinity, and 
thereby to remove all causes of future difficulty, the United States 
have invited the Chippewa,- Sac, and Fox, Menomonie, Iovvay, 

6 



40 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

Sioux, Winebago, and a portion of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and 
Potawatomie tribes of Indians living upon the Illinois, to assem- 
ble together ; and in a spirit of mutual conciliation, to accomplish 
these objects, and to aid therein, have appointed,' &c. 

The instrument then proceeds to establish a peace among 
these tribes, and it affords us great satisfaction to add, that this 
peace has been thus far preserved inviolate, and there is every 
reason to believe it will be permanent. The same principle 
was pursued in 1826, and at a greater expense, by convening 
a council upon Lake Superior, for the purpose of explaining 
and enforcing in that remote region, the objects of the treaty 
of Prairie du Chien. And at St Louis in September last, the 
Delawares and their allies, and the Osages, were convened, 
and an arrangement happily effected for the termination of the 
hostilities existing between these contending tribes. 

The amount annually expended by the government of the 
United States, upon the various matters connected with their 
Indian relations, has been already stated, as have also the ob- 
jects to which this expenditure is applied. It has been shown, 
that the sum now received from the sales of the public lands, 
is barely sufficient to meet this demand upon the treasury. But 
during many years, the United States supported an establish- 
ment, devoted to the purpose of supplying the Indians with 
those articles of civilized manufactures, which long habit has 
rendered essential to their comfort or subsistence. This plan 
was first adopted in 1796, and was continued by successive 
legislative enactments, until 1822, when the law regulating it 
was suffered to expire by its own limitation. A superintendent 
and agents were appointed, and a capital finally equalling 
$500,000 was vested in this concern. The salaries of all the 
officers were paid from the treasury, and the merchandise was 
required to be sold to the Indians, upon such terms, as would 
merely preserve the integrity of this capital. Even this utterly 
failed, owing to causes arising out of the war. It was eventu- 
ally thought expedient to leave this trade to private competition 
and to regulate the conduct of the traders, so as to prevent 
those impositions, which, at an earlier period, were apprehended 
from the limited capital and few persons engaged in this distant 
and hazardous traffic. 

The laws of the United States, regulating trade and inter- 
course with the Indian tribes, have made every provision, 
which could be devised, for protecting the rights of the Indians, 



Laws relating to Indians. 



41 



and restraining our citizens from injuring them. Among these 
provisions the following are the most prominent. 

Places are designated, where the traders must reside, in order 
that their conduct may be more open to observation, than it 
would be, if they were suffered to roam at pleasure through the 
country. 

No person can enter the Indian country to trade, without first 
obtaining a license from the proper agent, and giving bond with 
sufficient sureties for his good conduct. 

These licenses must be annually, or at most biennially re- 
newed, and any maleconduct prevents their renewal. 

An invoice must be submitted to the agent, previously to the 
granting of the license, that proper articles only may be intro- 
duced into the Indian country. 

An abstract of these licenses is required to be annually sub- 
mitted to Congress, and thus are they subject to the supervision 
of the national legislature. 

These are the principal provisions, by which the government 
of the United States has attempted to regulate the conduct of 
its citizens in their intercourse with the Indians. That they are 
wholly effectual, or that they are never violated, no one needs 
to be told, who knows what feeble barriers statutory regula- 
tions frequently interpose between ignorance and cupidity. But 
their object and tendency cannot be misunderstood, and it is 
difficult to conceive what other general system can be adopted, 
better suited than this to attain the desired end. Our laws 
also contain otlier regulations, not less honorable to the govern- 
ment than useful to the Indians. 

All persons are prohibited, under heavy penalties, from hunting 
or trapping, or settling upon the Indian lands, or from driving 
horses or cattle to feed thereon. 

The purchasing or receiving from any Indian a ' gun or other 
article commonly used in hunting, any instrument of husbandry, 
or cooking utensil of the kind usually obtained by the Indians in 
their intercourse with the white people, or any article of clothing, 
except skins or furs/ are rendered indictable offences. 

The United States guaranty to the Indians full payment for 
injuries done to them by any citizen, who shall pass the boundary 
line. In all disputes between the Indians and the whites, re- 
specting property, the presumption is declared to be in favor of 
the Indian, where possession has ever been with him. 

There is also a permanent act, which appropriates a sum of 
money annually, ' for the civilization of the Indian tribes ad- 



42 Service of Indians in civilized Way-fare, 

joining the frontier settlements.' The first section of this act, 
is a memorable proof of the feelings of the government of the 
United States, towards the Indians, and is, in itself, too inter- 
esting to be passed by unnoticed. 

' For the purpose of providing against the further decline and 
final extinction of the Indian tribes, adjoining the frontier settle- 
ments of the United States, and for introducing among them the 
habits and arts of civilized life, the President of the United 
States shall be, and he is hereby authorized, in every case, where 
he shall judge improvement in the habits and condition of such 
Indians practicable, and that the means of instruction can be in- 
troduced with their own consent, to employ capable persons of 
good moral character, to instruct them in the mode of agricul- 
ture suited to their situation ; and for teaching their children, 
reading, writing, and arithmetic, and for performing such other 
duties, as may be enjoined, according to such instructions and 
rules, as the President may give and prescribe, for the regulation 
of their conduct in the discharge of their duties.' 

And yet ' it is the boast of American policy, that the Indians 
shall be made to vanish before civilization as the snow melts 
before the sunbeam ! ' 

The inordinate indulgence of the Indians in spirituous liquors 
is one of the most deplorable consequences, which has resulted 
from their intercourse with civilized man. Human nature, in 
its vast variety of aspects, presents no phenomenon like this. 
Among other nations, civilized and barbarous, excessive ebriety 
is an individual characteristic, sometimes indulged and some- 
times avoided. But the Indians in immediate contact with our 
settlements, old and young, male and female, the chief and the 
warrior, all give themselves up to the most brutal intoxication, 
whenever this mad water can be procured. This propensity 
was remarked at a very early period, for Le Pere Ducreu, in 
his Historia Canadensis, says, llli austera ilia non suavitate, 
sed acrimonid barbarice capti, sine modo legeque, pellium per- 
mutatione coemptum hauriunt. (p. 62.) There is no reason 
to believe, that prior to the discovery of America, the Indians 
north of Mexico used any artificial liquor whatever. We can 
find no trace of any preparation similar to the ava of the 
Polynesian islands, or to the intoxicating liquor of the Mexi- 
cans. This remarkable abstinence, of which few examples 
can be found, has been succeeded by a melancholy reaction, 
equally unprecedented. Elsewhere habitual drunkards have 
paroxysms of intoxication followed by sobriety ; but as long a"s 



Spirituous Liquors among Indians. 43 

the stimulus can be obtained, an Indian abandons himself to its 
indulgence, with the recklessness of desperation. 

At the treaty of Chicago, in 1821, the commissioners order- 
ed, that no spirits should be issued to the Indians, and informed 
them, in their own manner, that the bungs were driven into the 
barrels. A deputation of the chiefs was sent to remonstrate 
against this precautionary measure, and at its head was Top- 
nibe, the principal chief of the Potawatomie tribe, a man up- 
wards of eighty years of age. Every argument was used to 
convince them that the measure was indispensable ; that they 
were exposed to daily murders, and that while in a state of 
intoxication, they were unable to attend to the business, for 
which they were convened. All this was useless, and the dis- 
cussion was only terminated by the peremptory refusal of the 
commissioners to accede to their request. ' Father,' said the 
hoary headed chief, when he was urged to remain sober, and 
make a good bargain for his people, ' Father, we care not for 
the money, nor the land, nor the goods. We want the whis- 
key. Give us the whiskey.' 

But fortunately, these revolting scenes are confined to the 
vicinity^ of the settlements, where spirituous liquors can be 
more easily procured. In the interior, the transportation of all 
articles is so expensive, that whiskey cannot be profitably sold 
in any considerable quantity. The ascent of rapid streams, 
and the crossing of numerous portages, where boats and their 
lading must be conveyed by human labor, render the Indian 
trade hazardous and expensive. And if the laws could be 
eluded, still the trader would be admonished by his own inter- 
est, not to attempt the sale of this deleterious article. If intro- 
duced at all, its introduction must be to the exclusion of com- 
modities, essential to the subsistence of the Indian, and conse- 
quently to the object of the trader. We have seen many 
Indians, remote from the white settlements, who had never 
tasted of spirituous liquors, and we can testify, from personal 
knowledge, that the evil itself is almost unknown there. 

Every practicable method has been adopted by the govern- 
ment of the United States, effectually to prevent this traffic. 
The introduction of spirituous liquors into any part of the In- 
dian country is rendered penal, and subjects the offender to 
fine and imprisonment, and to absolute forfeiture of all his 
goods. And the officers upon the frontier are enjoined to 
search all packages entering the country, and to seize and 



44 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



confiscate all outfits, among which this proscribed article shall 
be found. These regulations are rigidly enforced, and as 
there are certain great avenues of communication, by which 
alone, merchandise can be imported into the Indian country, it 
is not difficult to control the arrangements of the traders. 
These routes are the Mississippi and Missouri, the Fox and 
Ouisconsin rivers, the Illinois river, the St Peter's river, and 
the straits of St e Marie. By closing these great natural high- 
ways, all entrance into the country beyond is effectually inter- 
dicted, and upon or near ail of them, military posts are estab- 
lished, where a rigid system of surveillance is maintained. 
The police of the Indian trade is here in active operation, 
and every security is provided against fraud and oppression, 
which can be applied in such a complicated and extensive 
concern. 

The cultivated frontier of the United States, with which the 
Indians are placed in contact, extends from Detroit to Nachi- 
toches, a distance upon this line of fifteen hundred miles. 
Settlements occur at intervals, of greater or less extent along 
this whole border. There is nothing to prevent a daily inter- 
course between the inhabitants and the Indians ; and where the 
passion for spirituous liquors is so strong, and the determination 
to indulge it at all hazards, so fixed, it is easy to conceive, that 
opportunities would not be wanting, even were our institutions 
less free than they are. 

A solitary settler, whose nearest neighbor is some miles 
distant, has little to fear from the operation of a law, whose 
violation there is none to witness. And this is the difficulty, 
which has heretofore rendered abortive every exertion whol- 
ly to suppress this traffic, in the vicinity of our settlements. 
The peculiar organization of our government has vested in the 
United States complete jurisdiction over the Indian country, 
and as we have already seen, their duty has been fearlessly 
performed, by the enactment of laws to prevent the introduc- 
tion of spirituous liquors, and by an efficient administration of 
them. But as soon as the Indian title to any part of this coun- 
try is extinguished, the jurisdiction of the general government, 
for all the purposes of internal police, ceases, and that of the 
proper state or territory commences. All the states and terri- 
tories upon the western frontier have also passed laws to correct 
this evil, and why these laws have been less effectual than those 
passed by Congress, the facts we have stated will fully explain. 



Spirituous Liquors among Indians. 



45 



During the administration of Mr Jefferson, that distinguished 
philanthropist regarded with deep solicitude the condition and 
prospects of the Indians, and promoted with untiring zeal every 
measure for their improvement. He addressed a circular let- 
ter to the governors of the several states and territories, upon 
the Indian frontier, respecting this traffic in spirituous liquors ; 
and as this letter discloses the views of the government upon 
this important subject, we shall insert it below, as another evi- 
dence of this 4 exterminating ' policy, as it was exercised twenty 
years ago ; and similar proofs we might adduce even to the 
4 fiftieth time,' if it were necessary. 

To the judgment of the world we may safely commit the 
conduct of the American government, in regard to the particu- 
lars here touched upon. That full success has not attended 
their measures, is obviously attributable to the peculiar cir- 
cumstances which we have examined, circumstances that em- 
barrassed the French government in their efforts to protect the 
Indians from this deleterious indulgence. The earlier histori- 
ans of Canada have recorded the edicts and instructions of the 
French king for preventing 4 la traite oV eau-de-vie ,' et 4 V y- 
vrognerie a laquelle ces peuples ont un penchant.' 3 With what 
little success, is evident from the whole course of the narra- 
tive, and from the reiterated and peremptory interference of 

* l Washington, Dec. 31, 1808. 
4 Sir, — The general government of the United States have consider-- 
ed it their duty and interest, to extend their care and patronage over 
the Indian tribes within their limits ; and perceiving the injurious ef- 
fects produced by the inordinate use of spirituous liquors, have passed 
laws authorizing measures against vending or distributing such liquors 
among them. Their introduction by traders was accordingly prohibit- 
ed, and for some time was attended with the best effects. I am in- 
formed, however, that latterly, the Indians have got into the practice 
of purchasing such liquors themselves, in the neighboring settlements 
of whites, and of carrying them into their towns ; and in this way, our 
regulations, so salutary to them, are defeated. I must therefore re- 
quest you to submit this matter to the consideration of your legislature. 
I persuade myself, that in addition to the moral inducements which 
will readily occur, they will find it not indifferent to their own interest, 
to give us their aid in removing from their neighbors this great obstacle 
to their acquiring industrious habits, and attaching themselves to the 
regular and useful pursuits of life. For this purpose, it is much desir- 
ed, that they should pass effectual laws to restrain their citizens from 
vending and distributing spirituous liquors to the Indians. 

I am, &c. 

Th. Jefferson/ 



46 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

the government. The true cause of the failure is stated by 
Charlevoix, who concludes his account of one of these efforts 
by the just reflection, that ordinary authority acts feebly against 
certain passions, 4 et que V inter et de la religion est un motif 
peu capable de toucher des cceurs domines par la cupidite ! ' 
On a retrospect of all that has been attempted and effected, it 
can excite but little surprise, that the American government 
has but partially succeeded, when the first possessors of Cana- 
da, with military authority, an inconsiderable population, and 
but one avenue of communication with the interior, were un- 
able to suppress this desolating traffic. 

But in the actual state of our Indian relations, the missionary 
establishments for the education of Indian youth, founded and 
supported by voluntary contributions and aided by an annual 
appropriation from the national treasury, almost offer an atone- 
ment for the past, and certainly strong encouragement for 
the future. With a full knowledge of all that has heretofore 
been done, these institutions are proceeding upon more rational 
principles. And whatever may be the result of this great and 
interesting, and we may probably add, final experiment, but 
one opinion can exist respecting the motives and views of 
those who are conducting it. Of these establishments there 
are fortyone in operation, upon the frontiers of the United 
States. We do not know the number of pupils they contain, 
but their expenditures were $191,606 in 1S24, and $202,070 
in 1825. The returns for 1826, we have not seen. They 
will doubtless exhibit a proportionate increase. When it is 
recollected, that the value of their own agricultural products, 
and the labor of their teachers, artisans, and others, which is 
wholly gratuitous, constitute no part of this amount, some con- 
ception may be formed of the value of these eleemosynary 
foundations. The children, male and female, are here fed, 
and clothed, and taught, and they are prepared, by a regular 
discipline for those duties, which subsequent events may prob- 
ably call them to perform. We shall hazard no predictions 
concerning the result. Whatever that may be, no holier effort 
can be found in all the records of human charity. 

We shall advert to but one other plan which has been pro- 
posed for meliorating the condition of the Indians, and pre- 
serving them from further decline and eventual extinction, 
This is the scheme for removing them to the country west of 



Improving the Condition of Indians. 



47 



the Mississippi, and there establishing them in a permanent 
residence. It is well known, that this proposition was sub- 
mitted by the President to Congress two years since, accom- 
panied by a project of the various arrangements required to give 
it full effect. It has been slightly discussed in the legislative 
halls, and more fully in the public papers before the nation ; 
and the general opinion on its practicability and consequences 
is yet unsettled. All agree, that the expense is unworthy the 
consideration of the government, and that the only important 
inquiry is, what effect it would produce upon the Indians them- 
selves. The magnitude of the subject is imposing, and its 
possible consequences appalling. Doubts and difficulties sur- 
round the question, and we do not here introduce it, that we 
may prejudge or even discuss it. We have brought it before 
our readers merely as an evidence of the feelings of the 
American government, and of their earnest desire to discharge 
with fidelity a great moral debt, which is neither concealed 
nor denied. 

But when has England stretched forth a hand, to stay this 
wasting pestilence, which is sweeping before it all that time 
has spared us of the race of red men ? The whole continent, 
north of the United States, is under her control. From the 
gulf of St Lawrence to Nootka Sound, she exercises undis- 
puted sovereignty. In those extensive regions, many tribes of 
Indians yet remain, if not with primeval manners, yet with 
strong claims upon the sympathy of the government and peo- 
ple, who assert and exercise jurisdiction over them. There is 
here no want of physical wretchedness, or of moral depravity. 
The climate is rigorous, and the country sterile, and a scanty 
and precarious subsistence is furnished by the rivers and lakes 
and forests of these hyperborean regions. The living fountain 
of depravity has sprung up here, and the white man has pre- 
sented that poisonous draught, which brings forgetfulness of 
the past and recklessness of the future ; which converts an 
Indian into a demon, with every baleful passion excited, and 
every moral barrier prostrated, exhibiting a loathsome specta- 
cle, of which no conception can be formed by those, who have 
seen only the excesses of civilized life. 

Our inquiries, concerning the measures which have been 
adopted by the British government on this important subject 
have been direct, and the answers have been brief. To Upper 
Canada, however, these inquiries have been principally con- 
7 



I 



f 



48 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

fined, because there our opportunities have been most favora- 
ble, and because in Lower Canada the original population has 
almost disappeared. What has been done, no one has told us. 
What has been left undone, embraces the whole circle of duties, 
ivhich the relative situation of the parties imposes upon the 
christian power. There is no law to prevent the sale of spirit- 
uous liquors to the Indians ; none to prevent persons from 
hunting and trapping upon the Indian lands. There is no law 
to prevent the introduction of spirituous liquors in any quantity 
into the Indian country 5 or to require Indian traders to be li- 
censed or to give bonds ; or to regulate their conduct ; but they 
trade, when, and where, and how they please. No annuities 
are paid to the Indians ; or rather none is known to be paid to 
them, except in the case we have already mentioned. And in 
Mr Halkett's historical notes, respecting the North American 
Indians, published in 1825, we are told, that ' in Canada, there 
is but one regular protestant Indian mission ! ' 

We have not heard, that any plan has been digested or 
proposed for removing the Indians from any part of the lands 
they now occupy, where they are peculiarly exposed to temp- 
tations and danger, to more remote positions, beyond the reach 
of the advancing tide of civilized vices and population. Mr 
Buchanan has indeed suggested, that the country on the east- 
ern coast of lake Huron should be appropriated as a land of 
refuge, where these timeworn pilgrims may find rest and 
safety. But unfortunately for the success of this well intended 
project, this tract has been purchased by the British govern- 
ment, since the promulgation of Mr Buchanan's scheme, and 
the compass and chain are already preparing it for division and 
sale and settlement. 

The reviewer in the Quarterly has also expressed his ap- 
probation of this plan of protection and seclusion, but his be- 
nevolence is not less catholic, than it is disinterested. He 
proposes, that the Indians, living within the United States, 
should be received, and protected, and improved in the Brit- 
ish dominions. But he shall speak for himself. 

4 With us, humanity and policy dictate but one course. As 
the stream of American population continues to drive the tribes 
before it, some part of their remaining numbers may be forced 
northward, within the nominal [?] boundary of our possessions. 
There the fugitives should find shelter and protection, and oppor- 
tunities of social improvement. There the remains of the primi- 
tive people of that vast continent might yet be collected.' p. 110, 



British Fur Companies in Canada. 



49 



This is as just as it is generous, for we are assured, that to 
the Indians, ' is the preservation of Upper Canada, in the first 
year of the war, mainly to he attributed.' (p. 100.) That 
after these essential services, and after being compelled to 
abandon the ' Michigan country, of which it was intended to 
give them lasting possession,' (p. 78) a district should be as- 
signed for their permanent occupation, would not be unreason- 
able to expect. And, in the philanthropy evinced by the pro- 
position, we must find an excuse for the total ignorance dis- 
played of the course of Indian migration, which will never be 
directed towards the arctic regions. But unfortunately, the 
concluding sentence, by disclosing the true object of it, con- 
verts this benevolent scheme into a mere interested defensive 
preparation. 

1 There the remains of the primitive people of this vast conti- 
nent might yet be collected ; and their settlement on the western 
flank of our cultivated country might form no contemptible bar- 
rier and point of support against future aggressions, by which it 
is idle to suppose, that the Canadas are not yet to be menaced.' 

Hapless people ! Still destined to fight the battles of others, 
after your own are fought and lost ! You are to become a liv- 
ing bastion on the flank of the Canadian defences ! And this 
after all is the object of the proposition. The Indians are to 
be concentrated on our boundary, and thence they are to de- 
scend upon the cultivated country, as the Goths descended up- 
on Rome, involving in one indiscriminate destruction the mon- 
uments and arts of civilized life, and those who reared and 
cultivated them. 

The total absence of all restrictions upon the Indian trade in 
the British dominions has naturally led to the most revolting 
scenes. We shall extract from Captain Franklin's narrative a 
few passages, exhibiting facts, to which nothing similar can be 
found, from the mouth of the St Croix to the mouth of the Co- 
lombia. 

In describing York Factory, the principal establishment of 
the Hudson's Bay Company, Captain Franklin observes, speak- 
ing of the Crees, 

1 The inmates had a squalid look, and were suffering under 
the combined afflictions of the hooping cough and measles ; but 
even these miseries did not keep them from an excessive indul- 
gence in the use of spirits, which they unhappily can procure 
from the traders with too much facility ; and they nightly sere- 
naded us with drunken songs.' p. 23 



50 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare, 



1 The tribe of Indians, who reside in the vicinity and frequent 
these establishments is that of the Crees or Knisteneaux. They 
were formerly a powerful and numerous nation, which ranged over 
a very extensive country, and were most successful against their 
neighbors, particularly the northern Indians, and the tribes on 
the Saskatchawin and Beaver rivers ; but they have long ceased 
to be held in any fear, and are now perhaps the most harmless 
and inoffensive of the whole Indian race. This change is to be 
entirely attributed to their intercourse with Europeans [English- 
men?], and the vast reduction in their numbers, occasioned, I 
fear, by the injudicious introduction among them of ardent spirits. 
They are so passionately fond of this poison, that they will make 
any sacrifices to obtain it*' p. 50. 

' It might be thought the Crees have benefited by their long in- 
tercourse with civilized nations. That this is not so much the 
case as it ought to be, is not entirely their own fault. They are 
capable of being and I believe willing to be taught, but no pains 
have hitherto been taken to inform their minds, and their white 
acquaintances seem in general to find it easier to descend to the 
Indian customs and modes of thinking, particularly with respect 
to women, than to raise the Indians to theirs. Indeed, such a 
lamentable want of morality has been displayed by the white tra- 
ders, in their contests for the interest of their respective compa- 
nies, that it would require a long series of good conduct, to efface 
from the minds of the native population, the ideas they have form- 
ed of the white character.' p. 59. 

' It often happens, 5 says Doctor Richardson, 1 that the meat, 
which has been paid for, if the poisonous drafts it procures them, 
can be considered as payment,' &c. 

But the full developement of the principles and practice of 
this trade will be found in the seventieth page of this work, and 
to it we must refer all, who are anxious to ascertain what are 
the effects of this intercourse, where there is no authority to 
check or restrain it. We cannot introduce into this journal the 
facts, which are disclosed. But the canon of commercial 
ethics, by which these shocking scenes are permitted and justi- 
fied, we shall here quote for the benefit of some future Vattel, 
who may prepare a code of fur regulations for the ' republican 
government.' ' The masters and wintering partners of the com- 
panies, deemed this criminal indulgence to the vices of their ser- 
vants, necessary to stimulate them to exertion for the interests 
of their respective companies.' And this atrocious principle is 
thus avowed, not by one of the 6 outsettlers of Kentucky, Ohio, 
and the other back states,' but by two great companies, one of 



British Fur Company in Canada, 



51 



them constituted by the British crown, sovereigns over an im- 
mense country, peopled by many tribes of Indians, and the 
other exercising actual sovereignty, without any delegated au- 
thority, over regions as extensive, and as extensively inhabited. 
Well may the reviewer in the Quarterly commiserate the fate 
of the Indians, when abandoned to traders like these ! 

But the contests of these rival companies assumed, at one 
period, a much more portentous aspect, than the ordinary com- 
petition of commercial jealousy. Armaments were prepared, 
allies engaged, forts captured, and battles fought, by these pel- 
try lords, in open contempt of their government, and to their 
own everlasting disgrace. Scenes were exhibited to the In- 
dians in that quarter, which never were, and we may proudly 
say, never can be witnessed in the United States.* These 
flagitious scenes continued for years to excite their passions and 
corrupt their morals, as well by the depraved examples around 
them, as by the indulgence of their propensity for ardent spirits, 
which the importance of their services rendered necessary. 

* We shall quote from Lord Selkirk's justificatory pamphlet, pub- 
lished at Montreal in 1817, and entitled ' Notices of the Claims of the 
Hudson's Bay Company and the Conduct of its Adversaries,' a few par- 
agraphs descriptive of these incidents. 

At page 94 will be found the instructions of the Governor of the 
Red River Settlement, dated Fort Douglass, 12th April, 18 J 6, to one 
of his officers detached upon a particular service. This officer is told, 
' It is my wish, that you carefully avoid every act of hostility, until 
fully justified by the conduct of our enemies. The half breeds having 
been ordered to assemble at the Fort Q,ui Appelle, any acts of hostil- 
ity committed by them, must be considered as committed by immedi- 
ate or authorized agents of the Northwest Company, and repelled or 
retaliated accordingly.' 

In a note to page 101, it is stated, that 4 in the month of July, 1816, 
in a council held before the Indian department at Drummond's Island 
near Lake Superior, in the presence of Lieutenant Colonel Maule, 
President, Lieutenant Colonel M'Kay, Superintendent of Indian affairs, 
John Askin, and others, a declaration was made by Katawaketay, an 
Indian of Fond du Lac, importing, that he had been solicited by some 
of the Northwest Company, to lead his nation to make war upon and 
destroy the English Colony, at Red river. That he had been offered 
all the goods in three of their stores as a reward, if he would under- 
take this service. That he had refused their offer, and declined tak- 
ing arms against the colony, until he knew whether it would be satis- 
factory to the Indian department, and his great father on the other 
side of the great lake. That he was some months afterwards offered 
a bribe, if he would cause the bearers of despatches to the Colony to 
be intercepted by any of his people, and robbed of their papers or 
murdered.' 



52 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare, 



6 These Indians,' we are told in the pamphlet just referred to 
' are often kept in the forts of the Northwest Company in a state 
of intoxication, until they are deprived of all they possess.' 
(p. 53.) Nor was this civil war terminated, as it should have 
been, by the efficient interposition of the British government. 
A proclamation of Sir John Sherbrooke is almost the only pub- 
lic measure, which is known to have been adopted. Some of 
the parties were apprehended by the exertions of their ri- 
vals, and committed to prison at Montreal, but they finally es- 
caped with impunity. Lord Selkirk was understood to be at 
the head of the Hudson's Bay Company, which was influen- 
tial in London, and Mr M'Gillivray, a member of the Council 
of Lower Canada, was at the head of the Northwest Compa- 
ny, which was equally influential at Quebec. But a union of 
the rival companies has terminated all these difficulties. The 
bustle and noise of war have disappeared, and have been suc- 
ceeded by the calm, still operations of trade. It is a silence, 
which will not soon be interrupted. It is already becoming the 
silence of desolation. In those impassable regions, the op- 
pressor and the oppressed are almost severed from the human 
family, and there are few now to disclose the deeds of the one, 
or the sufferings of the other. A vague estimate of them may 
however be formed from the facts before us.* 

In Captain Franklin's Narrative, there is a full confirmation of 
these statements, but it appears from his account, that both of 
the companies, now consolidated into one, are guilty of these 
nefarious practices. After informing us of the methods by 
w^hich the Indians are induced to dispose of their furs, and par- 
ticularly the enticement of spirituous liquors, he adds, 

' Neither has any attention been paid to the original cost of 
European articles, in fixing the tariff, by which they are sold to 
the Indians. A coarse butcher knife is one skin, a woollen 
blanket, or a fathom of coarse cloth, eight, and a fowling piece, 
fifteen, p. 74. 

He has already told us, that a skin in the language of the 



* ' From the manner in which the trade of the Northwest Compa- 
ny is carried on, the natives are subjected to continual and grievous 
oppressions and cruelties, and their race is menaced with speedy ex- 
tinction.' Hudson's Bay Company Pamphlet, p. 58. 

' The intercourse of the Northwest Company with the Indians is 
not indeed entitled to the appellation of a trade, but under the sem- 
blance and disguise of commerce, is an organized system of rapine.* 
p. 61. 



British Fur Company in Canada. 



53 



trade, is a beaver skin, and is the standard of value ; and we 
are thus enabled to compute the prices of the articles mention- 
ed, and to form some general conception of the enormous profits 
of this traffic. The expense of transportation is inconsidera- 
ble, when compared with the excessive prices, at which the 
goods are sold ; for the pamphlet before quoted informs us, 4 It 
is well ascertained, that the conveyance of goods through Hud- 
son's Bay, to the Red River Settlement, is not more expensive, 
than the conveyance of goods from England to York, in Upper 
Canada ' (page 67) ; and again it is said, that 6 these goods are 
sold at an advance of one thousand per cent, upon the Mon- 
treal prices' (page 40). We are told by M'Kenzie, (Travels, 
vol. I. page 24,) that thirteen thousand three hundred and sixty- 
four skins of fine beaver weigh nineteen thousand two hundred 
and eightythree pounds,' giving about one pound and a half as 
the average weight of each skin. This at five dollars a pound, 
which is the usual price, would fix the value of a skin at seven 
dollars and a half. A butcher knife, which probably costs in 
England 3±d. sterling, would thus sell for seven dollars and a 
half ; a blanket or two yards of coarse cloth, winch cost two 
dollars, would sell for sixty ; and a fowling piece, which 
M'Kenzie (Vol. I. p. 19) says ' costs no more than twenty- 
one shillings in Great Britain,' would sell for one hundred and 
twelve dollars and a half. We may safely affirm, ' without fear 
of contradiction or error,' that human avarice has never devised 
a more stupendous system of fraud and rapine, and that a more 
iniquitous traffic, or one evincing a more utter destitution of 
6 all fear of God and regard towards man,' has never adminis- 
istered to the insatiate thirst for riches. The extracts we have 
furnished exhibit a full view of this trade. A hunter is enticed 
in the autumn, to receive, what, in the language of the trade, is 
called 6 credits,' or such articles as are essential, in the altered 
condition of the Indians, to the subsistence of his family. 
With the products of the chase, he is anxious to discharge the 
debt, but he is allured to another post, and supplied with ardent 
spirits at ' one thousand per cent, advance,' till his reason is 
overpowered, and his little stock dissipated. He is then turn- 
ed out, with a miserable family about him, and the frigid zone 
before him. 

These are the effects of an unrestrained trade. We have 
sketched them briefly, but truly. And that the moral degrada- 
tion of the Indians is not confined to these countries, we have 



54 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



the evidence of the anonymous author of the 4 Remarks on the 
Indians of North America,' who is understood to be Mr Ban- 
nister, Attorney General of New South Wales, and who says, 
4 The Indians in Nova Scotia are perhaps more degenerated than 
any other tribes.' (p. 37.) We trust the outsettlers and traders 
of the back States, will not again be taunted by a British journal 
with 4 their vicious lives,' and 4 the poison of ardent spirits,' 
until the general character of the Indian trade in the British 
dominions shall have approximated to the standard, which is es- 
tablished by the laws of the United States, and to which their 
citizens have approached, if they have not conformed. 

The Reviewer dismisses with affected indifference, as we 
have seen, the question of the employment of the savages by 
the British government in the late war. 4 Against them, as 
against us, the Americans had been the real aggressors.' This 
pretence of fighting the battles of the Indians is a stale arti- 
fice, and one which they themselves well understand, as is suf- 
ficiently evinced by their declaration already quoted from 
Pownall. Mr Bannister is more candid. He says, 4 Nor must 
it be forgotten, that Indian hostilities have rarely been carried 
on in the absence of European instigations.' (p. 27.) We have 
no disposition to tax the patience of our readers by investigat- 
ing the causes of our second war with Great Britain. He, 
who has yet to learn, that it originated in a series of maritime 
aggressions, unexampled in duration and extent, must seek it 
in the history of the times. The hope of possessing Canada 
had no more influence upon the declaration of war, than the 
possession of Paris in 1814, by the allies, had upon the origin 
of the war, which was consummated by that event. In all 
belligerent operations, injuries are mutually inflicted, until the 
parties are willing to relinquish the contest, with or without an 
adjustment of the difficulties, which caused it. 

The war with the tribes, here alluded to, was the hostile 
movement upon the Wabash in 1811, which commenced in the 
fanatical or political schemes of Tecumthe and his brother, the 
Shawnese prophet, and was terminated by the battle of Tippa- 
canoe. The Reviewer, with characteristic ignorance, denomi- 
nates this a furious war with the Indian tribes. It was a very 
partial affair, in which not a single tribe was engaged. During 
several preceding years, a fanatical spirit had gone forth among 
the Indians, of which the Prophet was rather the dupe than 
the cause. Circumstances, partly the result of his personal 



Indians on the Northwestern Frontier. 



55 



Character, but still more of his situation and associations, gave 
to his rhapsodies an influence and to his name a celebrity, 
which the prophets of other tribes have never acquired. But 
the same phrenzy prevailed through the whole extent of the 
Indian country, and was felt amid the ice and snow of the po- 
lar regions. It was not alone upon the frontiers of the United 
States, that a prophet appeared to rouse his countrymen, by 
religious denunciations, to cast away the manufactures of the 
white man, and to bid the forest resume its empire over his 
cultivated fields. The disaffected party under the influence of 
the Prophet, which threatened our frontiers in 1811, before 
the movements of General Harrison's army, and which was 
dispersed by his successful operations, was composed of desert- 
ers from a few of the tribes. The acknowledged government of 
each tribe disavowed any participation in their projects. And 
they were in fact a lawless, predatory band, obeying no com- 
mon authority, and seeking no rational object. 

The Reviewer is either not aware of the fact, or conceals it 
from his readers, that some of the most important tribes never 
joined the British interest, but faithfully preserved their friendly 
relations with the United States. It is usual to consider the 
Indians as one people, with the same feelings, views, and policy. 
But they are broken into independent communities, frequently 
enemies and always rivals, claiming and occupying separate 
districts of country, and receiving for their cessions separate 
considerations. 

The intercourse of the United States with the Delawares, 
had been varied and extensive, and they had gradually retired 
as our settlements advanced, ceding in succession the lands 
possessed by them ; and at the declaration of war, they were 
established upon While river, an important tributary of the 
Wabash. They withstood every temptation, and not a Dela- 
ware raised a weapon against the United States, during the 
whole contest. 

The Shawnese were also faithful. Their history is involved 
in much obscurity. Their language is Algonquin, and closely 
allied to the Eickapoo and other dialects, spoken by tribes, who 
have certainly lived for ages north of the Ohio. But they are 
known to have recently emigrated from the south, where they 
were surrounded by a family of tribes, Creeks, Cherokees, 
Choctaws, &c. with whose language their own had no known 
affinity. Their traditions assign to them a foreign origin, and 
8 



56 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

a wild story has come down to them of a solemn procession 
to the brink of the ocean, and of a miraculous passage through 
the great deep. That they are closely connected with the 
Kickapoos, the actual identity of language furnishes irrefraga- 
ble proof, and the incidents of the separation yet live in the 
oral history of each tribe. We are strongly inclined to believe, 
that not long before the arrival of the French upon the great 
lakes, the Kickapoos and Shawnese composed the tribe, known 
as the Erie ; living on the southern shore of the Lake, to which 
they have given their name. It is said, that this tribe was ex- 
terminated by the victorious Iroquois. But it is more probable,, 
that a series of disasters divided them into two parties, one of 
which, under the name of Kickapoos, sought refuge from their 
enemies in the immense prairies between the Illinois and Mis- 
sissippi, and the other under the name of Shawnese fled into 
the Cherokee country, and thence farther south. Father 
Sagard in 1632, called the Eries, the nation du chat, or of the 
racoon, on account of the magnitude of those animals in their 
country ; and that is the soubriquet, which to this day is applied 
by the Canadians to the Shawnese. But however this may be, 
the tribe itself, like the Delawares, had been migratory, and 
had removed its council fire from place to place, as the white 
man advanced to extinguish it. They, too, had made import- 
ant cessions, and occupied the country at the sources of the 
great Miami. Their relations with the United States were 
scrupulously preserved ; but Tecumthe and the Prophet, insti- 
gated by personal ambition, abandoned their brethren, and with 
a little party of seceders, estimated in the Quarterly at ' half a 
score,' * passed over to the British camp. 

The Miamies had long been stationary in the country be- 
tween Lake Michigan and the Ohio, and had yielded to the 
United States, for valuable returns, valuable tracts of coun- 
try. At the commencement of the war, and for some months 
afterwards, they adhered to their engagements, and forty of 
their warriors accompanied William Wells, who was sent to 
conduct the garrison of Chicago to Fort Wayne. When our 
operations in the northwest were palsied by imbecility, and 
one disaster seemed to make way for another, this tribe yielded 
to the combined effects of threats and promises, and accepted 
the tomahawk, which was tendered to them by the British 
officers 



* Quarterly Review, No. 61, p. 107. 



Indians on the Northwestern Frontier, 57 

The Senecas, who also occupied a portion of the country, 
south of Lake Erie, were a shoot from the main stem in New 
York. The)' preserved their integrity with honorable firmness. 

The history of the Wyandots, we shall presently examine. 
We have here but to remark, that their claims extended over 
important sections of the country, and that they were parties to 
various treaties, by which the American government had ac- 
quired extensive jurisdiction. The great body of the tribe 
resided upon the Sandusky river, and there its legitimate gov- 
ernment was established. Neither people nor government 
abandoned their friends, nor forgot their duties. 

These were the tribes upon our frontier, with whom our re- 
lations had been most complicated, and they were the tribes, 
who evinced the strongest disposition to remain neutral, or to 
join us in the contest. 

The Chippewas, Ottawas, and Potawatomies are more 
closely connected, than any other tribes. They have one 
council fire, and almost an identity of interest. The Chip- 
pewas extend from Lake Erie far to the north and west, and 
their different bands have no common point of union, but 
manage their concerns like independent tribes. Those in the 
peninsula of Michigan are associated with the Ottawas and 
Potawatomies, and previously to the war of 1812, not an acre of 
the country belonging to these tribes, had ever been occupied 
by the United States. The settlements were confined to the 
districts, acquired by their predecessors, French and British, 
and although a cession of territory had been made in 1807, 
yet not a white man had settled upon it, and the entire usufruct 
was in the Indians. The northern Chippewas, the Menomo- 
nies, the Winebagoes, and the Sioux, who are enumerated in 
the Quarterly as active allies, and who probably constituted 
three fourths of the British savage force, had never been 
brought into contact with the American government, nor ever 
ceded to it the smallest portion of their lands. Nor to this 
day has a rood of their country been bought, or claimed, or 
settled, or occupied. The little insulated communities at 
Green Bay and Praire du Chien are now, as they were at the 
capitulation of Montreal. 

What then becomes of the pretext, that the Indians engaged 
in this war 4 for the preservation of their territory ? ' When, in 
fact, those, who had ceded most, were most anxious to remain 
at peace. And when those, who had ceded nothing, and who 



i 



58 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



will for ages cede nothing, clutched the tomahawk with as little 
scruple as it was presented. Was it a provident regard for 
the future, that dictated to the aboriginal politicians the neces- 
sity of providing for events, which, if they ever come, must 
come when some mighty physical revolution shall render the 
southern coast of Lake Superior and the table land of the 
Mississippi pleasant residences for civilized man ? Such pro- 
spective wisdom is rarely found among the Indians. It would 
disclose, not a mere trait of character, but a new feature of 
human nature, if these improvident beings, with, whom the past 
is forgotten and the future contemned, and whose whole exist- 
ence is absorbed in the present, should encounter the United 
States in war, lest their country might be sold after the lapse 
of centuries. 

But it is felt, that some justification is necessary for this 
union of St George's cross and the Indian Kukewium * and it 
is now discovered, that the christian troops were fighting the 
battles of the Indians. And whose battles were they fighting 
in the revolutionary war ? What land had the infant govern- 
ment acquired, or what aggression had it committed ? When 
the British ministry quailed before the eloquent invective of 
Chatham, it was said by Lord Suffolk in the House of Lords, 
that if they did not employ the Indians, the Americans would. 
How false this was, we have already shown. But the ministry 
adhered to their resolution, with a tenacity of purpose, which 
in a better cause would have merited the appellation of just 
inflexibility. As the alliance was consummated openly, better 
to avow it boldly. Better to avow at once, what no canting 
will ever conceal, that the savage ' cooperation ' was useful to 
the British troops ; and it was therefore sought with an anxie- 
ty, no ways diminished by the ruthless consequences of its 
employment. 

We shall now proceed to examine another subject, which 
may properly be considered in this place. 

1 The surrender of Hull,' says the Quarterly, ' had been short- 
ly preceded by the accession of the tribe of Wyandots or Huron 



* This is the Indian standard, and the word, which is Algonquin, 
means something to stand by. It is a long spear, with feathers attach- 
ed to the staff from one end to the other, and issuing at right angles 
from it. The color of the feathers is variegated ; and this ensign is 
borne by the chief warriors. Whenever it is displayed, the hostile 
parties well understand that there is neither peace nor truae, and that 
a battle alone can decide between them. 



Late War on the Frontiers. 



59 



Indians, to our alliance. Inhabiting the banks of the Detroit 
river or strait, these people form a singular exception to the de- 
generacy, which usually attends the intercourse of the Indians 
with the whites. The Wyandots have all the energy of the savage 
warrior, with the intelligence and docility of civilized troops. 
They are christians/ &c. p. 103. r . 

As the occurrence, here mentioned, forms no uninteresting; 
episode, and developes the system of operations, by which the 
Indian alliance was secured, we shall give the history of the 
transaction, as we know it happened. 

Charlevoix long since described the Wyandots as ' the nation 
of all Canada, the most remarkable for its defects and virtues.' 
When Jacques Cartier ascended the St Lawrence, he found 
them established near Hochelega, now Montreal ; and when 
Champlain entered the same river, their war with the Iroquois 
had already commenced, and that enterprising officer accom- 
panied one of their parties in a hostile expedition against their 
enemies. The events of that war were most disastrous, and 
they were driven from their country to the northern shore of 
Lake Huron. But distance afforded no security, and the Iro- 
quois pursued them with relentless fury. Famine, disease, and 
war made frightful havoc among them, and the accounts of 
their sufferings, given by the old missionaries, who witnessed 
and shared them, almost task the belief of the reader. 
They were literally hunted from their resting place, and the 
feeble remnant of this once powerful and haughty tribe owed 
their preservation to the protection of the Sioux, in whose 
country, west of Lake Superior, they found safety and tran- 
quillity. In a few years, however, the power of the Iroquois 
was crippled by their wars with the French, and the Wyan- 
dots descended Lake Superior, and occupied the land about 
old Michilimackinac. When the French fort at Detroit was 
first established in 1701, this tribe was invited to settle in its 
vicinity, and their services were important in resisting the hostile 
operations, which the Foxes long conducted against the infant 
colony. Their final migration was to the plains of Sandusky, 
and here they resided, when the ill fated expedition of Craw- 
ford was consummated by his horrible sacrifice at the stake. 

This tribe is at the head of the great Indian family. How 
this preeminence was acquired, there is none now to tell. They 
were the guardians of the great council fire, and they alone 
had the privilege of sending their messengers, with the well 



60 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



known credentials, wampum and tobacco, to summon the other 
tribes to meet their uncle, the Wyandot, when any important 
subject required general deliberation. In the calamities, occa- 
sioned by the victorious career of the Iroquois, the site of 
this fire had been often changed, but always with the prescrib- 
ed ceremonial, and with proper notice to all, who had a right 
to convene around it. In 1812, the fire was at Brownstown, 
at the mouth of the Detroit river ; but it was extinguished in 
blood. And the whole institution has now disappeared, and 
will soon be remembered only in the traditionary stories, which 
it is the province of age to repeat, and of youth to learn. 

The Wyandots are divided into seven bands or tribes. 
There are three Turtle tribes ; namely, the Little Turtle, the 
Water Turtle, and the Large Land Turtle tribes ; the Porcu- 
pine tribe, the Deer tribe, the Bear tribe, and the Snake tribe. 
Their offices are in form elective, but in reality hereditary, 
and the succession is through the female line. A chief is suc- 
ceeded by his sister's son, or by the nearest male relative in 
that descent. There was formerly a great chief, called Sars- 
taritzee, and by the English the Half King. But the office, 
not being suitable to the declining fortunes of the Wyandots, 
has been abolished. A peace chief is at the head of each 
tribe, and the chief of the Porcupine tribe is now the acknow- 
ledged head of the nation. The seven chiefs are called the 
counsellors, and they constitute the actual government of the 
Wyandots. 

In 1812, Tarhe or the Crane, an aged and venerable man, 
was the principal chief of the Porcupine tribe of the Wyandot 
nation. He lived at Upper Sandusky, about one hundred 
miles from the mouth of the Detroit river, and there he was 
surrounded by his counsellors, and by almost all his people. 
A small party, amounting to about sixty persons, including 
men, women, and children, lived upon the River Aux Canards 
near Maiden, in Canada, and another party of about two 
hundred and fifty persons, lived on the American shore of the 
Detroit river, nearly opposite the British post at its mouth. 
Such was the distribution of the Wyandot nation at the decla- 
ration of war in 1812. 

When the Crane became satisfied, that a war between the 
l United States and Great Britain was inevitable, he directed the 
proper measures to be taken for convening a general council 
at Brownstown ; and alarmed at the situation of his own people. 



Late War on the Frontiers. 61 

he attended in person with his confidential counsellor, Between- 
the-logs, and with the principal Shawnese chief, Black-hoof. 
At this council the Wyandots were asked by the Potawatomies, 
Chippewas, and Ottawas, whether they intended to take hold 
of the British hatchet, which was offered to them. Walk-in- 
the-water, who was at the head of the Wyandots on the Amer- 
ican side of the river Detroit, and was the chief speaker of the 
nation, answered ; 1 No, we will not take up the hatchet against 
our father the Long-knife. Our two fathers are about to fight, 
but we red men have no concern in their quarrel, and it is best 
for us to sit still, and remain neutral.' This advice was generally 
approved ; but the result of the council having been communi- 
cated to the British authorities, immediate measures were taken 
to counteract a decision so adverse to their hopes. A council was 
convened at Maiden, which was attended by the chiefs of the 
various tribes in the vicinity. Elliott, the Indian agent, and the 
British commanding officer were present. The former de- 
manded of the Wyandots, whether they had advised the other 
tribes to remain neutral. To this, Walk-in-the-water answered ; 
i We have, and we believe it is best for us, and for our brethren. 
We have no wish to be involved in a war with our father, the 
Long-knife,, for we know by experience, that we have nothing 
to gain by it, and we beg our father, the British, not to force 
us to war. We remember, in the former war between our fa- 
thers, the British and the Long-knife, we were both defeated, 
and we the red men lost our country ; and you, our father, the 
British, made peace with the Long-knife, without our know- 
ledge, and you gave our country to him. You still said to us* 
my children, you must fight for your country, for the Long- 
knife will take it from you. We did as you advised us, and 
we were defeated with the loss of our best chiefs and warriors,, 
and of our land. And we still remember your conduct towards, 
us, when we were defeated at the foot of the rapids of the Miami, 
We sought safety for our wounded in your fort. But what 
was your conduct ? You closed your gates against us, and we 
had to retreat the best way we could. And then we made 
peace with the Americans, and have enjoyed peace with them 
ever since. And now you wish us, your red children, again 
to take up the hatchet against our father, the Long-knife. We 
say again, we do not wish to have any thing to do with the 
war. Fight your own battles, but let us, your red children., 
enjoy peace.' 



62 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



Elliott here interrupted the speaker, and said ; ' That is 
American talk, and I shall hear no more of it. If you do not 
stop, 1 will direct my soldiers to take you and the chiefs, and 
keep you prisoners, and will consider you as our enemies. , 
Walk-in-the-water then took his seat, to consult the other 
chiefs, and Round-head, who had openly espoused the British 
interest, and who was the chief of the small party of Wyandots 
living in Canada, immediately rose, and said ; 4 Father, listen 
to your children. You say, that the talk just delivered by my 
friend Walk-in-the-water, is American talk, and that you can- 
not hear any more of it ; and if persisted in, you will take the 
chiefs prisoners, and treat them as enemies. Now hear me. 
I am a chief, and am acknowledged to be such. I speak the 
sentiments of the chiefs of the tribes, assembled round your 
council fire. I now come forward, and take hold of your war 
hatchet, and will assist you to fight against the Americans ! ' 
He was followed by Tecumthe and the Prophet, and by two 
Wyandot chiefs, Worrow and Split-log, the former residing in 
Canada, and the latter in the United States. Walk-in-the-wa- 
ter, and his associates, still declined the invitation. Elliott 
then arose and said ; ' My children, I am now well pleased at 
what you have done ; that you have accepted the hatchet of 
your British father, and are willing to assist him in fighting 
against the Americans. As for these men, my friend Walk- 
in-the-water, and the others, 1 shall bring them and their peo- 
ple to this side of the river, where I can have them under my 
own eye, for they are in my way at Brownstown*' 

Walk-in-the-water made no reply, but left the council house, 
and recrossed the river, to communicate the result to the Crane. 
Apprehensive for his personal safety, the old chief and his at- 
tendants instantly left Brownstown, and returned to their people 
at Upper Sandusky. A detachment of the British troops, 
under the command of Captain Muir, with a party of the mi- 
litia under Captain Caldwell, amounting to about three hundred 
men, accompanied by Round-head and Tecumthe, with two 
hundred Indians, crossed the river the same night. They sur- 
rounded and took prisoners, the Brownstown Wyandots, and 
compelled them to embark in their boats. They were then 
carried to Maiden. A few days before this occurrence, 
this party had sent a deputation to the American general at 
Detroit, at the head of which was Walk-in-the-water, repre- 
senting their exposed condition, and requesting that a block 



Late War on the Frontiers. 



63 



house might be erected at Brownstown for their defence. 
Why this obviously useful measure was not adopted, we can- 
not tell. The proposition evinces the earnest desire of the 
party to be protected in their neutrality. And this is the 4 saga- 
city ' displayed by the tribes, who 4 hastened ' to join the British 
troops. 

But we shall develope the whole progress of this Wyandot 
' alliance,'' as the incidents, connected with it, reflect much 
light upon the secret management of Indian ' cooperation.'' 

About a year after this forced 4 accession? the Crane pro- 
posed to General Harrison, who was then encamped with his 
army at Seneca, that a formal embassy should be sent by the 
Wyandots, to their brethren in the British camp, and to all the 
Indians, who adhered to the British cause, advising them to 
consult their true interest, and retire to their own country. The 
proposition was approved by General Harrison, and the Crane 
was requested to take such measures, as appeared most proper 
to give it effect. 

Between-the-logs was appointed the ambassador, and a 
small escort of eight warriors, commanded by Skootash, the 
principal war chief of the nation, was selected to accompany 
him. Two speeches were sent by the Crane, one to be de- 
livered privately to his own people, and the other publicly to 
the British Indians. 

The Wyandot embassy arrived at Brownstown in safety, 
and the following morning a general council assembled to hear 
the message from their uncle. The multitude was prodigious, 
and Elliott and McKee, the British agents, were present. We 
have been told, that Between-the-logs arose in the midst of 
this host of enemies, and delivered with unshaken firmness the 
following speech from the Crane, which had been entrusted to 
him. 

4 Brothers, the red men, who are engaged in fighting for the 
British king, listen ! These words are from me, Tarhe, and 
they are also the words of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shaw- 
nese, and Senecas. 

4 Our American father has raised his war pole, and collected 
a large army of his warriors. They will soon march to attack 
the British. He does not wish to destroy his red children, 
their wives, and families. He wishes you to separate your- 
selves from the British, and bury the hatchet you have raised. 
He will be merciful to you. You can then return to your own 
9 



64 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



lands, and hunt the game, as you formerly did. I request you 
to consider your situation, and act wisely in this important 
matter ; and not wantonly destroy your own people. Brothers, 
whoever feels disposed to accept this advice will come forward 
and take hold of this belt of wampum, which I have in my 
hand and offer to you. I hope you will not refuse to accept 
it in presence of your British father, for you are independent 
of him. Brothers, we have done, and we hope you will decide 
wisely 5 

Not a hand moved to accept the offered pledge of peace. 
The spell was too potent to be broken by charms like these ; but 
Round-head arose, and addressed the embassy. 

' Brothers, the Wyandots from the Americans, we have 
heard your talk, and will not listen to it. We will not forsake 
the standard of our British father, nor lay down the hatchet 
we have raised. I speak the sentiments of all now present, 
and I charge you, that you faithfully deliver our talk to the 
American commander, and tell him it is our wish he would 
send more men against us, for all that has passed between us, 
I do not call fighting. We are not satisfied with the number 
of men he sends to contend against us. We want to fight in 
good earnest.' 

Elliott, then spoke. ' My children ; as you now see that my 
children here are determined not to forsake the cause of their 
British father, I wish you to carry a message back with you. 
Tell my wife, your American father, that I want her to cook 
the provisions for me, and my red children, more faithfully 
than she has done. She has not done her duty. And if she 
receives this as an insult, and feels disposed to fight, tell her to 
bring more men, than she ever brought before, as our former 
skirmishes I do not call fighting. If she wishes to fight with 
me and my children, she must not burrow in the earth like a 
ground hog, where she is inaccessible. She must come out 
and fight fairly.' 

To this, Between-the-logs replied. 1 Brothers, I am direct- 
ed by my American father to inform you, that if you reject the 
advice given you, he will march here with a large army, and 
if he should find any of the red people opposing him in his 
passage through this country, he will trample them under his 
feet. You cannot stand before him. 

£ And now for myself, I earnestly entreat you to consider the 
> good talk I have brought, and listen to it. Why would you 



Late War on the Frontiers. 



devote yourselves, your women, and your children, to destruc- 
tion ? Let me tell you, if you should defeat the American 
army this time, you have not done. Another will come on, and 
if you defeat that, still another will appear, that you cannot 
withstand ; one that will come like the waves of the great 
water, and overwhelm you, and sweep you from the face of 
the earth. If you doubt the account I give of the force of the 
Americans, you can send some of your people, in whom you 
have confidence, to examine their army and navy. They 
shall be permitted to return in safety. The truth is, your 
British father tells you lies, and deceives you. He boasts of 
the few victories he gains, but he never tells you of his defeats, 
of his armies being slaughtered, and his vessels taken on the 
big water. He keeps all these things to himself. 

6 And now, father, let me address a few words to you. 
Your request shall be granted. I will bear your message to 
my American father. It is true, none of your children appear 
willing to forsake your standard, and it will be the worse for 
them. You compare the Americans to ground hogs, and com- 
plain of their mode of fighting. I must confess, that a ground 
hog is a very difficult animal to contend With. He has such 
sharp teeth, such an inflexible temper, and such an unconquer- 
able spirit, that he is truly a dangerous enemy, especially when 
he is in his own hole. But, father, let me tell you, you can 
have your wish. Before many days, you will see the ground 
hog come floating on yonder lake, paddling his canoe towards 
your hole ; and then, father, you will have an opportunity of 
attacking your formidable enemy in any way, you may think 
best.' 

This speech terminated the proceedings of the council. 
All the Indians, except the Wyandots, dispersed, and they se- 
cretly assembled to hear the message sent to them by their own 
chief. 

Governments frequently preserve their forms, long after es- 
sential changes occur in their institutions, and the Turkish 
edicts are yet dated from the Imperial stirrup, although the 
successors of Amurath have long since exchanged the camp 
for the seraglio. The Crane's message was a peremptory man- 
date, evincing in its manner, that the time has been, when 
sterner authority was exercised by the Wyandot chiefs, than 
they would now assume, or the warriors obey. 



66 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

The Wyandots were directed to quit Skorah* immediately. 
They were said to be liars and deceivers, and that they had 
always deceived the Indians. And facts, in evidence of this, 
were quoted. The building of Fort Miami was particularly 
referred to. It was said to be erected as a refuge for the In- 
dians, but when they were overpowered by Wayne, the gates 
were shut against them.f The comparative strength of Gen- 
eral Harrison's army and of the British forces was concealed 
from them, and they were in a very dangerous condition. 

This message was faithfully delivered to the Wyandots, and 
produced its full effect upon them. They requested Between™ 
the-logs to inform the Crane, that they were in fact prisoners, 
but that they had taken firm hold of his belt of wampum, and 
would not fire another gun. They promised, that on the ad- 
vance of the American army, they would quit the British troops, 
as soon as it was safe to take that decisive measure. And such 
in fact was the result. When Proctor left the country, his 
Wyandot allies abandoned him, a few miles from the mouth of 
the River Tranche and retired into the forest. Thence they 
sent a message to General Harrison, imploring his mercy. 

But this formal interposition of the tribe, which has stood 
for ages at the head of the great Indian confederacy, produced 
an excitement, visible and menacing. To counteract it, the 
usual means were employed, and the embassy was directed to 
leave the country instantly. So apprehensive were their friends, 
that even the sacred character attached to them, would not 
protect them from the machinations of Elliott, that a party of 
the warriors accompanied them, some miles on their return. 
No sinister accident however occurred. J But we return to 
the Reviewer. 

' A watchful care and a fortunate degree of influence over our 
Indian allies, prevented the infliction of such enormities in the 

* The British, in the Huron dialect. 

f The Crane was wounded in this action, and the loss fell heavily 
upon the Wyandots. 

\ Every Indian speech is accompanied by its appropriate belt, which 
is deposited with the chief speaker. These belts constitute the records 
of the tribe. They are formed of wampum, which is small beads man- 
ufactured from shells for this purpose. These beads are strung upon 
sinews, and are then united into a belt. The beads are generally white, 
blue, or black, and a symbolical meaning is attached to their distribu- 
tion. The memory is aided by the faculty of association, and the 
speeches are repeated at stated intervals, and thus preserved for pos- 
terity. We have seen a very ancient belt of the Wyandots, and heard 



Late War on the Frontiers. 



67 



Canadian war, and after the moment of slaughter in action, the 
Indians yielded their prisoners to our ransom.' p. 100. 

' And the exertions of our officers which so generally obtained 
quarter for the prisoners, who fell into their hands,' &,c. p. 102. 

? It was customary for the British to secure the lives of prison- 
ers, by paying head money for every American delivered up in 
safety by the Indians.' p. 106. 

6 A watchful care and fortunate degree of influence ! ' Never 
have public and notorious facts been so openly contemned. 
The writer of this article could not have known the extensive 
circulation of the journal, in which his misrepresentations have 
been embodied. He could not have known, that it would reach 
those, who had heard the Indian war whoop ; who had seen 
these atrocious cruelties, which yet flit, like pale spectres, 
across the memory. This affectation of mercy, and of merci- 
ful exertions, we shall proceed to expose, and to reveal some 
of the horrible enormities which are here passed over. 

We have already seen the official account in the Quebec 
Gazette, of the four or five hundred men, who were slaughtered 
by the Indians at the battle of the River Raisin in 1813, 
because they attempted to effect their escape. This account 
is signed by Edmund Baynes, Adjutant General, and there is 
inserted in it the following complimentary notice. 4 The 
Indian chief, Round-head, with his band of warriors, rendered 
essential service by his bravery and good conduct.' But the 
most authentic evidence yet exists, of the barbarities, which 
were perpetrated upon the prisoners taken in this 6 brilliant 

the speech repeated in a language, bearing little resemblance to that 
now spoken by them. 

The facts connected with this deportation of the Wyandots and the 
embassy from the Crane, we have received from Mrs Walker, a re- 
spectable half Wyandot woman, and her two sons, Isaac and William. 
The former is the public interpreter at Upper Sandusky, and the latter 
is the teacher of the Missionary school at that place. Both are intel- 
ligent and well educated, and both are men of integrity. They and 
their mother were with the Wyandots of Brownstown, and were taken 
across the Detroit River. And they were present at the great coun- 
cil, where Between-the-logs delivered his speech. 

We are also indebted to Mr Stickney, then the United States agent 
for the Wyandots, for his account of the transaction. And we may 
add, that the general facts respecting the capture of these people were 
known to us at the time ; and that we were present, when the am- 
bassador received his instructions ; and we heard the Crane, when he 
made his report to General Harrison of the result. 



68 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 

action.'' We shall introduce a part of it here, and leave to our 
readers to judge for themselves, of the ' watchful care, and 
fortunate degree of influence, 1 which are thus loudly proclaim- 
ed to the world. The facts which we are about to quote, 
were taken at the time from eye witnesses under oath, whose 
names are attached to their testimony. * 

1 Joseph Robert says, that on the next day after the battle on 
the River Raisin, a short time after sunrise, he saw the Indians 
kill the American prisoners with their tomahawks ; that the Indians 
set the houses on fire, and that in going out, the prisoners were 
massacred and killed as aforesaid ; that is, three were shot, the 
others were killed in the houses and burned in the houses.' 

'Antoine Boulard says, that on the next day after the last battle 
at the River aux Raisins, he saw the Indians kill the Secretary of 
the American General, who was on the horse of the Indian who 
had taken him prisoner, with a rifle shot ; that the prisoner fell 
on one side, and an Indian came forward with a sabre, finished 
him, scalped him, and carried away his clothes. The body re- 
mained two days on the high way, before the door of the depo- 
nent.' 

' Louis Bernard states the same fact, respecting the massacre 
of the Secretary of the American General, and also, "that on the 
next day after the battle, I was near the house of Gabriel God- 
frey, Junior, and the house of Jean Baptiste Jereaume, where a 
great number of prisoners were collected, and that I heard the 
screaming of the prisoners, whom the Indians were tomahawking ; 
that the savages set the houses on fire," 5 &c. 

Ensign Baker was left by General Winchester to take care 
of the prisoners, and in his report of these outrages, after stat- 
ing the names of many whom he knew to have been killed by 
the Indians subsequently to the battle, adds, 

' Many fresh scalps have been brought in since the battle, and 
dead bodies seen through the country, which proves that others 
have been killed whose names I have not been able to find out, 
independent of those reported to Colonel Proctor. 

' The fifteen or eighteen mentioned in the remarks to the re- 
turn made to Colonel Proctor, whose names do not appear, were 
not known by those who saw them killed.' 

1 For the greatest number of our unfortunate fellow citizens 
being sent from Detroit, we are indebted to the exertions of our 

**The documents in full may be found in Niles's Register, Vol. 
IV. pp. 92, 93. They were transmitted to our Government by 
Judge Woodward in March, 1813. 



Late War on the Frontiers. 



69 



fellow citizens there, who with unexampled generosity,' &c. 
' lavished their wealth for their ransom.' 

' Hubert Lacroix deposes, that on the day succeeding the mas- 
sacre at the River Raisin, he was proceeding from the battle 
ground of the preceding day to Sandy Creek in company with 
another person, and on arriving near the creek, their attention was 
attracted by violent screams, apparently of some one in extreme 
terror or agony, issuing from a house near them. After hesitating 
a moment, they cautiously approached the house and looked in, 
when they saw standing in the middle of the room a wounded 
American soldier, bound hand and foot and tied to a stake. Bun- 
dles of straw were attached to him, as high as his breast, and 
around him, singing a death song, were dancing a number of In- 
dians, with lighted torches in their hands, with which at short 
intervals, they kindled the straw around the prisoner. The next 
morning the deponent saw the dead body of the prisoner, mangled 
and half burned, lying in the door yard before the house, where it 
had been thrown by the Indians, as soon as death had put a period 
to their tortures.' 

To this we might add the mass of testimony presented to a 
committee of the House of Representatives appointed to ex- 
amine the subject, and all tending to confirm the same shock- 
ing facts ; as well as innumerable proofs from other quarters. 
But we forbear. These details are as afflicting to us as they 
can be to our readers, and we shall therefore only refer to the 
massacres, which followed the surrender of Colonel Dudley's 
detachment on the north side of the Miami on the 5th of May, 
1813. The particulars will be found in the public journals of 
the times.* A large body of the prisoners was placed within 
the walls of old Fort Miami, and many of them were assassi- 
nated by the Indians, who passed the British centinels, and 
attacked these unarmed men. We never knew the number 
of those, who were thus massacred. An honest half Shawnese, 
Joseph Parks, has more than once described the scene to us, 
and stated, that he saw one Potawatomie kill three prisoners. 

But we here terminate this recital of horrors, and pass by 
the conflagrations and murders, which studded our exposed 
frontier with burning dwellings and mangled corpses, from 
Lake Erie to the gulf of Mexico. 

' It was customary,' says the Quarterly again, ' for the British 
to secure the lives of the prisoners, by paying head money for 



* See Niles's Register, May 22 and 29, 1813. 



70 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



every American delivered up in safety by the Indians ; and this 
measure was generally successful.' pp. 105, 106. 

We shall probe this matter to the bottom. The war was 
commenced in June, 1812, and the cooperation of the British 
and Indians was confined almost exclusively to the northwest- 
ern frontier. The services of the Indians upon the Niagara 
and St Lawrence were scarcely felt, and certainly produced 
no effect upon the operations of the war. Incursions were 
made upon Our territory, in that quarter, in a few instances 
only, and there were no aggressions there to mark the 4 alli- 
ance? The surrender of Detroit opened our whole frontier to 
the enemy, and it required the most vigorous exertions for 
many months to retrieve the effects of this unlooked for disas- 
ter. During this period, Winchester's troops were defeated at 
the River Raisin, Fort Meigs was twice besieged, and an attempt 
was made to carry Lower Sandusky, by a coup de main. 
This last attack was made on the 2d of August, 1813, and it 
terminated the offensive operations of the British in this quar- 
ter. General Harrison had been embodying and disciplining 
his troops, and collecting all the necessary materiel, preparatory 
to those vigorous measures, which were eventually so honora- 
ble to himself, and so useful to his country. Proctor retreated 
from Sandusky, without capturing a single prisoner, and of 
course without the opportunity of 4 ransoming 9 any. The Mo- 
ravian Towns on the river Tranche were the next place, where 
he saw the American troops, and here his force was annihilat- 
ed, and his Indian allies scattered like leaves before the blast. 
This authority to pay head money was first given in a general 
order issued by Sir George Provost, dated at Kingston, July 
20th, 1813. 

c With a view to soften and restrain the Indian warriors in 
their conduct towards such Americans, as may be made by them 
prisoners of war, his Excellency is pleased to approve of the fol- 
lowing arrangements, submitted by that board, and directs that 
the same be acted on, namely,' among other things, ' for head 
money upon prisoners of war, brought in by Indians, allowance 
should be made to them for each prisoner brought in alive of 

FIVE DOLLARS ! ' 

After the war had existed more than a year, and unheard of 
barbarities had been inflicted upon our captured troops, and the 
storm, which at last overwhelmed the British army in the 
northwest, was gathering and approaching, this order appears. 



Late War on the Frontiers. 



71 



The proffered reward never saved a single human being ; and for 
the most conclusive of all reasons, because not a human being 
was taken by the Indians after its promulgation. The massa- 
cres we have related, all occurred before this humane attempt 
* to soften and restrain the Indian warriors.'' And this effect 
is to be produced by a gratuity of five dollars ! Not enough 
as we have seen, to buy a butcher knife ! The hand of the 
warrior, in the excitement of battle, is to be stayed by this pal- 
try sum ! The miserable victim of savage caprice is to be 
protected during the paroxysms of fury and intoxication, to 
which he is exposed in the camps and villages of the Indians, 
by the cupidity of his master, who is to receive five dollars ! 
We ask seriously, how much more was given for the dead 
scalp, than the living head ? Let those answer, who can. For 
ourselves, we know, that every successful war party, on its re- 
turn, was taken to the public store, and profusely supplied with 
clothing and other necessary articles. 

We shall now introduce unquestionable evidence to show, 
that so far from any real attempt to soften and restrain the In- 
dians, the citizens of the subjugated Territory of Michigan, 
were actually prohibited by the British authorities from rescu- 
ing their suffering countrymen, by purchasing them of the In- 
dians.* The British General, Proctor, is now beyond the 
reach of human judgment. What motive induced him to issue 
an order, so shocking both in its immediate and remote conse- 
quences, we cannot tell, nor can any of the respectable gentle- 
men, who have signed the statement below. Persons most 
charitably disposed will attribute the measure to some unknown 

* ' We, whose signatures are to this paper, were in this country dur- 
ing the whole occupation of it by the British troops in 1812 and 1813. 
It is within our knowledge, that during that period, no American pri- 
soner was redeemed from the Indians by the British government by 
the payment of his ransom ; that an express official order was issued 
prohibiting the American citizens from ransoming such prisoners; and 
that until such prohibition the citizens of the country redeemed such pri- 
soners whenever it was in their power. The average value at which 
the American prisoners were held by the Indians was not less than 
fifty dollars.— [Signed.] Robert Smart, John Whipple, Oliver W. 
Miller, Peter J. Desnoyer, Antoine Dequindre, J. McDonell, Joseph 
Spencer, William Meldrum, Laurent Durocher.' 

' I am well acquainted with all the persons, who have signed the 
preceding statement, and know them to be respectable and intelligent, 
and entitled to full credit. — [Signed.] Solomon Sibley, one of the 
Judges of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Michigan.' 

10 



72 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare, 



effect upon the active operations, in which he was engaged ; 
while others will seek a solution in his personal character, and 
in the policy of inspiring his enemies with terror. 

But whatever doubt there may be respecting the motive, 
there is none of the fact. It is as well known as any other 
occurrence, which marked the dark year of British domination 
in Michigan, and now constitutes part of her history. 

But there is another document, which we have seen, and 
which was never intended for an American eye, that affords a 
practical commentary upon this plan of ' softening and re- 
straining the Indian warriors.'* It was an original letter from 
General Brock to Proctor, apparently in the handwriting of 
the former, and dated the day preceding his death. It was 
found among the papers of Proctor, which were captured after 
the action at the Moravian Towns, and was first discovered by 
Lieutenant Norton, Aid de camp to the general officer, who 
then commanded upon that frontier, and was generally read by 
the officers. The purport of this letter was as follows. 

' You say you had thoughts of using the force under your 
command to restrain the Indians from committing depredations 
on the inhabitants. The person or persons who have advised you 
to a course of this kind, cannot be friendly to our government. 
I would advise you to beware of them. This species of force is 
necessary to us, and they must be indulged.' 

The pretended ' butcheries,'' ' massacres,' and 4 murders,' 
after the actions at Tippecanoe, the Massasinewa, and the 
Moravian Towns, are vile fabrications. We use strong terms, 
but the following letter from the able general, who personally 
commanded in two of those actions, and by whose orders the 
expedition was undertaken, which led to the other, will prove 
that the terms are no stronger than the circumstances fairly 
justify. 

*■ Sir, — In answer to your inquiries respecting the statement in 
the sixtyfirst Number of the London Quarterly Review of the 
murders committed by the American troops upon the Indians, 
after the battles of Tippecanoe and at the Moravian Towns, and 
at the attack upon the Indian settlements in the autumn of 1812, 
alluding, I presume, to Colonel Campbell's expedition to the Mas- 
sasinewa, I have to state that the entire account is a base cal- 
umny, unsupported by the slightest testimony, and wholly and 
absolutely false. 

* Not an indian woman, nor child, living or dead, was seen at or 
subsequent to the battle at the Moravian Towns. They had all 



Late War on the Frontiers. 



73 



been secreted in the forest, before the approach of the American 
troops, nor was one of them discovered by us. Nor was a wound- 
ed Indian warrior left upon the field. Agreeably to the Uniform 
custom of the Indians, all who were not killed, were removed by 
them, and the situation of the army, and the nature of the coun- 
try forbade all pursuit. 

' Colonel Campbell, in his attack upon an Indian town, the 
day preceding the action at the Massasinewa, killed seven Indian 
warriors and captured thirtyseven men, women, and children. 
The next morning he was himself attacked, and after a vigorous 
contest, the Indians were repulsed with considerable loss. During 
this action his prisoners were protected, and not one of them was 
injured. They were all brought in safety to the settlements, ex- 
cept some who were dismissed with messages to the Indians. An 
Indian child was carried by Colonel Ball, the second in com- 
mand, upon his horse, and his life was thus preserved. 

4 At Tippecanoe our troops were attacked by the Indians, who 
occupied a formidable position in a fortified town, near the site of 
our encampment. The attack was made before day on the morn- 
ing of November 7th, 1811, and after the Indians were repulsed, 
they retired to their town, and thence they sought secrecy and 
security in the forest. The American troops did not enter the 
town till the eighth, when it was found wholly abandoned except 
by one old decrepid squaw, who was supplied with provisions 
and left unharmed. Not an Indian family was seen during the 
whole expedition. Two wounded Indian warriors were taken, 
both of whom were carefully attended. One of them died on the 
following day, and the other, a distinguished Potawatomie chief, 
was left on the ground, at his own earnest request, with every thing 
necessary to his comfort. He was found by his friends a few 
hours after our army had commenced its retrograde march. He 
lived some weeks after, but died from an attempt to amputate his 
wounded leg with a tomahawk. I had offered to have this opera- 
tion performed by the army surgeons, but he could not be prevail- 
ed on to have it done. These two warriors and the squaw were 
the only living Indians seen subsequent to the battle. 

I am, &c. 

W. H. Harrison. 

Our testimony is feeble and useless after this decisive refu- 
tation, but we cannot refrain from saying, that the statement of 
General Harrison respecting the battle at the Moravian Towns 
is in coincidence with our distinct recollection. 

As to what is said of 4 the more recent and authorized hor- 
rors of General Jackson's Seminole war, 5 which Mr Buchanan 
declares, ' he has deemed it prudent to omit in his work,' we 



74 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



suppose it refers to the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, 
and of the Indian Prophet, who instigated his countrymen ta 
war. The following observations are annexed in the form of 
a note to the words just quoted. ' It is curious to connect 
this caution, on Mr Buchanan's part with the assurance which 
almost immediately follows on the same page, that " the kind- 
ness and civility, which he has experienced from all ranks in 
the United States, he shall ever be ready to acknowledge." 
And this, too, is prudence.' We confess, that we comprehend 
the meaning of Sir Buchanan, as little as we do the point of 
the note. His Majesty's consul will never meet the fate, nor 
obtain the crown of martyrdom, if his other virtues be not 
more strongly tempted, than was his prudence here. Certainly 
he could not mean to insinuate that there was any danger, 
either to his person or to his social intercourse in the examina- 
tion of a transaction, whose details had been published in every 
newspaper, and discussed in every political circle in the Union ; 
which had formed the subject of inquiry in the Senate and 
House of Representatives, and upon which a committee in 
each of those bodies had reported unfavorably ; and which 
had furnished matter for a serious diplomatic correspondence 
between our government and the British and Spanish authori- 
ties. 

To this correspondence we may safely refer all, who have 
yet any interest in investigating the occurrences of the Semi- 
nole campaign, and the conduct of the commanding General. 
With many it has been a triumphant vindication, and with others 
a satisfactory justification ; and all have felt the force of the 
argument, and ackowledged the perspicacity of the writer on 
the part of the United States. General Jackson is no favorite 
with the English journalists, nor is it natural he should be, till 
the affair of New Orleans can be forgotten. His fame must 
rest upon the affections of his countrymen, and upon his own 
splendid achievements. They are proud and durable monuments. 

We shall now examine some of the other facts, stated in this 
article. They are, perhaps, not very important, but as they 
were thought worth fabricating, they are worth refuting. 4 For 
these truths^ says the Quarterly, 1 we will pledge ourselves.' 
(p. 100.) How indiscreetly this pledge has been given, and 
how tardily it will be redeemed, we shall presently see. 

1 Every man who has served in that country, can attest the fact, 
that the Kentuckians invariably carry the tomahawk and scalping 



Late War on the Frontiers. 



n 



knife into action, and are dexterous in using them. It is well au- 
thenticated, that the first scalp taken in the late war, was torn 
from the head of a lifeless Indian by the teeth of a captain in the 
American service. This wretch, whose name was McCulloch, 
was killed in a skirmish on the 5th of August, 1812, and in his 
pocket was found a letter to his wife, boasting, that on the 15th 
of the preceding month, a few days after the opening of the war, 
when an Indian had been killed on the river Canard, and was 
found scalped, he had performed the exploit.' p. 102. 

The character of the Kentuckians is beyond the reach of 
tirades like this. We know them well. They are generous, 
hospitable, high spirited, and patriotic ; fearing nothing and 
regarding nothing in the heat of battle ; but kind and humane 
when the battle is over. Their exertions and those of their 
sister state, Ohio, in support of the late war, will be recorded 
among the proudest events of American history. Their citi- 
zens voluntarily joined the standard of their country at New 
Orleans and on the northern shore of lake Erie. 

Every hunter or woodsman carries a knife, whenever his 
occupations lead him into the forest. It is as necessary to him 
as his rifle and blanket. Without it, he could not skin and 
dress his game, nor strike his fire, nor cut a stick, nor prepare 
for encampment, nor divide his victuals, nor perform the 
thousand offices, where such an instrument is required. But 
this writer probably supposed, that every night, a comfortable 
table, with its knives and forks, and other apparatus, is spread 
for the citizen soldier, who mounts his horse at the summons of 
his country, and is soon lost to all but himself and his com- 
panions, in the everlasting solitude of pathless forests. Here, 
his roof is the heavens, his pillow a saddle, his bed a blanket, 
a pointed stick his only culinary utensil, and his knife the only 
manual instrument. And how long is it, since similar imple- 
ments were carried by the Highlanders, and since £ the clank- 
ing of knives and forks, lifted from the table, above the salt, 
and drawn from the sheath below it,' was heard at Highland 
dinners ? And these hardy mountaineers, and we speak it 
seriously, were as likely to scalp their living companions, as the 
Kentuckians to inflict outrages upon a dead or dying savage. 
It may be, that such gross violations of decency and humanity 
were committed. Individual passions cannot always be re- 
strained, but the man and the deed would be reprobated, as 
generally and as vehemently in Kentucky as in London. 



76 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



The story of the first scalp torn from the head of an Indian 
by Captain McCulloch, we shall tell in few words. The first 
scalp taken during the late war between the United States and 
Great Britain, was torn from the head of a British soldier by 
9n Indian in the British service, and carried to Maiden, we 
presume for the customary reward. For this fact, we can ap- 
peal to the gallant General Miller, to Colonel Snelling, and 
other living officers, to whom the occurrences, which we shall 
relate, are well known. 

Soon after General Hull crossed the Detroit river, a detach- 
ment was ordered to advance towards Maiden, and observe 
the position of the enemy. A British party was stationed to 
protect the bridge over the River aux Canards, and when the 
American detachment arrived near that river, one company 
was directed to advance along the road, concealing as long as 
possible their approach, and to fire upon the British party, as 
soon as they discovered the main body of the detachment in 
the rear. To attain a position in the rear, the river was cross- 
ed a few miles above the bridge, and when the advancing de- 
tachment was descried, the British party was attacked, and 
instantly fled. The sentinel upon the bridge was killed, and 
another man wounded ; and from this simple occurrence, 
where there was almost no fighting, and certainly no resistance, 
Sir George Provost favored the world with a specimen of mil- 
itary fanfaronade, to which no equal can be found except in 
Hudibras. His order is dated August 6th, 1812, and in it, he 
talks of the ' heroism and self devotion displayed by two pri- 
vates, who being left as sentinels, when the party, to which 
they belonged, retired, continued to maintain their situation 
against the whole of the enemy's force, until they both fell, 
when one of them, again raising himself, opposed with his bay- 
onet those advancing upon him, till he was overwhelmed by 
numbers,' &c. The soldier, who was killed, was buried near 
the spot, and as soon as the detachment retired, he was disin- 
terred by the Indians, and his scalp taken off and carried to 
Maiden. 

McCulloch had in early life been taken prisoner by the In- 
dians. Their manners and habits were familiar to him, and 
he had married a half Wyandot woman. He was employed 
as one of the guides of General Hull's army, and when that 
army reached Detroit, he voluntarily crossed over to Canada, 
anxious, no doubt, to participate in scenes, which recalled the 



Late War on the Frontiers. 77 

incidents of his early youth. He remained with the army but 
a few days, and was killed on his return. We believe he shot 
an Indian in a skirmish, while in Canada, and, without however 
knowing the fact, we may well admit, that he scalped him. He 
had often fought with the Indians, and his memory was stored 
with many a tale of their barbarities, and his passions excited to 
revenge them. The dental tearing of the scalp, is doubtless a 
gratuitous ornament of the writer of this article, to place the 
story in bolder relief. Was this too in the letter, or was the 
narrator present to witness an operation, which might bid de- 
fiance to a tiger's teeth ? As to the captaincy, it is another 
fabrication. McCulloch was as much a captain in the army of 
the Grand Lama, as in the American service. He was, as 
we have seen, a guide — a pilot, through an ocean of forest. 

And is this laceration of a dead body, inhuman as it is, to 
be an offset against a system of pecuniary rewards, which led 
to murders, that the prescribed voucher might be obtained for 
their payment ? Many of these facts are known to ourselves. 
And for others, we refer to living witnesses, or to publications 
or documents, which have long been before the public. 

Before quite closing our long article, we must beg the pa- 
tience of our readers to listen one moment to a curious story 
told by the Quarterly. 

' After Hull's advance into Canada, the little river Canard for 
some time separated our troops from the enemy ; its banks were 
overgrown with long rushes and rank grass, and the Indians fre- 
quently crossing it in their canoes, found cover to watch every 
motion of the enemy's outposts. One morning a small picquet of 
twelve or fourteen Americans, were sent forward to the river to 
reconnoitre, and were observed in their advance by a single In- 
dian, who lay concealed among the rushes. He marked out one 
of the party, fired, and killed him. While the smoke of his 
rifle was dissipating, he had already crept round to the rear of the 
picquet, who had just time to pour a volley into the spot, which 
he had quitted, when a second shot from behind them, brought 
another of their companions to the earth. The fire of the party 
was ineffectually repeated, and immediately followed by a third 
bullet, as deadly as the two first, from an opposite quarter. Then 
believing themselves surrounded, and panic struck at the unerring 
discharge of their enemy, the party precipitately retreated, and 
left the field to the Indian.' p. 103. 

If one man can be found from Johnny Groat's house to the 
Land's End, who believes this idle rhodomontade, our estimate 



78 



Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



of British intelligence has been higher than it should be. 
There is not a tree nor a bush, within a mile of the spot, 
where this brilliant exploit was achieved. Memory has plac- 
ed before, us the whole panorama, freshly and vividly. The 
little sluggish stream winds its devious course through an ex- 
tensive prairie, as level as the noble strait which bounds it, and 
but little elevated above it ; affording no shelter for an ambush, 
nor safety against an attack. Yet here, a party of fourteen 
men, woodsmen too, is surrounded in broad day, by a single 
Indian, who fires and succeeds in obtaining their rear, envelop- 
ed in the smoke of his own rifle, while they are firing where 
he was ! And three times he thus fires, travelling the circum- 
ference of the circle, while his bewildered enemy is employed 
in facing about, and attacking, not the shadow, but the smoke ! 
We have seen something of Indian fighting, and know, that in 
the forests, and behind trees and logs, they are formidable, 
and even terrible assailants. And when the sleep of the sol- 
dier is broken by the war whoop, the firmest heart may well 
confess its fearful anxiety. But this wonderful improvement 
in aboriginal tactics, this ambulatory ambuscade, we had yet to 
loarn. Certainly the Monk of Canterbury could not have in- 
vented gunpowder. This stratagem would seem to afford an 
explanation of the mode, in which the Trojan adventurer, un- 
harmed and unobserved, advanced to the very palace of the 
Carthaginian queen. The neque cernitur idli must refer to the 
very hero of the River Canards. 

Infert se septus nebula, mirabile dictu, 

Per medios, miscetque viris ; neque cernitur ulli. 

But lest the Reviewer should lay the flattering c unction to 
his soul,' that the trifling skirmishes upon the River Canards, 
prevented the passage of the American troops, we can tell him, 
that after the first attack, when the British detachment was 
driven into Maiden, and possession obtained of the bridge, the 
American parties were expressly prohibited by their command- 
er from crossing that river. For the truth of this fact, we 
appeal to General Miller, to General McArthur, and to General 
Findlay. That stream was the impassable gulf, beyond which 
our troops might gaze, but over which they could not pass. 
We do not here investigate the motives of the American gene- 
ral. That is the province of history. 

Our task is finished. Much of it has afforded us no pleas- 
ure. But the glove was thrown down, and recreant indeed 



t 



Late War on the Frontiers. 77 

should we of this country prove, were there none willing to 
take it up. The charges were made in no measured terms, 
and the manner and the matter were equally exceptionable. 
In their examination, we have been necessarily led to investi- 
gate facts, some of which were never thus publicly disclosed, 
and others had passed away, and were forgotten. Although, 
when grouped together, they present scenes at which human- 
ity shudders, yet they are the lessons of history ; and profit- 
able lessons too, if they prevent the recurrence of similar 
enormities, or if they produce any permanent improvement in 
the condition of the Indians. The experience of the past is 
only valuable, as it influences the present and the future. 
History can never become ' philosophy teaching by example, 5 
if we exclude from its records all transactions to which the par- 
ties cannot look back with complacency. To the mariner, the 
buoy that marks the sunken rock and warns him to avoid it, is 
not less dear, than the beacon which discovers his destined port 
and invites him to enter. The massacre of St Bartholomew's, 
the Sicilian Vespers, the Noyades of the Loire, the martyrdoms 
of Smithfield, and the infinite multitude of events, whch ex- 
hibit the ascendancy of pernicious passions, are yet useful 
memorials for after ages. History, and even modern history, 
is already sufficiently fabulous, without a suppressio veri, which 
will leave to posterity little more than a knowledge, that bat- 
tles were fought, and kingdoms won. 

Many of the facts, which we have stated, will be new to the 
British nation. Indifference to the sufferings of others is no 
trait of their character, and it is not probable, that either they 
or their government were ever fully aware of the horrors, which 
attended the employment of the savages. The scene of ac- 
tion was far distant, their feelings were excited by war, and 
the facts were systematically concealed or misrepresented, by 
those, who conducted their operations in this hemisphere. 
Were it even in our power, it would afford us no pleasure to 
lower the rank of England in the general scale of national 
character. It was the land of our forefathers. We are con- 
nected with England by many a grateful recollection, by many 
a sympathetic feeling, by the ties of consanguinity, by the 
bonds of a common language and a common religion, and by 
kindred habits, feelings, and pursuits. In all that is valuable 
in life, in literature, in science, and in the arts, she has con- 
tributed her full proportion to the general stock. 
10 



78 Service of Indians in civilized Warfare. 



But while we award this justice, we may be permitted to 
express our regret, that discussions, such as we have now 
spread before our readers, are ever rendered necessary by the 
violent attacks of the British press upon the mind and manners 
of this country. Who is to profit by this warfare, we are un- 
able to conjecture. Even while we are writing these remarks, 
we perceive that one of the most respectable of the English 
journals has recently travelled out of its course to observe, that 
4 we are not fond of relying upon American reports? * And 
what is gained by this affectation of contempt? The malice is 
ineffectual, the dart falls imbecili ictu, and the world is at no 
loss to attribute such coarse invective to the remembrance of 
events that have happened, or still more to gloomy visions of 
those, which may happen. Whatever we are, or are to be, 
we are far beyond the reach of mere literary denunciations, 
which, however they may gratify malevolence abroad, or pro- 
voke irritation at home, can never impede our progress in the 
career of national improvement. 

How much more honorable would it be, and we cheerfully 
add, how much more becoming the British character, to cherish 
kindly feelings ; to look back upon the little band of pilgrims, 
who sought liberty of action and of conscience beyond the ocean, 
and who carried with them the spirit of those institutions, which, 
in their native land and in their newly sought home, have secur- 
ed so much national prosperity and private happiness ; and to 
look forward to the United States, as the great depository of 
English literature and science and arts, and the living evidence of 
English intelligence and principles, when her own insular mon- 
uments shall be swept away, as all things else have been swept 
away, by the rolling tide of time. Sincerely do we hope that 
her day of glory will not be shrouded in a night of gloom ; but 
what has happened to other nations may happen to her ; and 
the traveller may yet inquire for the site of London, as we now 
inquire for those of Nineveh and Babylon. 

* Retrospective Review. Article, Pontoppidan's Natural History 
of Norway. 



